PLACENTIA — Looks can be deceiving when it comes to the Laguna Beach football team.
The Breakers are small in size, low in numbers and start two freshmen on the offensive line, as well as a sophomore, but that didn’t prevent them from piling up another win Friday night, this time a 28-14 victory against El Dorado at Valencia High.
“We’re so young,” Laguna Beach coach John Shanahan said. “To try to ask great consistency from 14 year olds, it gets pretty hard, but I love those guys and they really do fight. For young guys, I’m super proud of them.”
Laguna Beach (4-0) is also stacked with some talented juniors.
Jack Hurst completed 22 of 32 passes for 236 yards and four touchdowns.
Will Kimball caught two of the touchdown passes and fellow junior Brady Stringham caught the other two.
Wyatt Bogdan, a junior linebacker who also plays wide receiver, intercepted a pass late in the game to help seal the win.
“We have a bunch of guys who just care,” Kimball said. “We’ve been playing together since Pop Warner, so it’s just the chemistry we have. We keep fighting. We love each other, we play for each other.”
The Breakers caused a fumble with a big hit on their first defensive series and recovered at the El Dorado 43-yard line.
Laguna Beach was facing third-and-12 from the 34 when Stringham caught a short pass from Hurst, broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage and another down field before being forced out of bounds at the 1.
After a broken play led to a loss of three years, Hurst found Kimball for a 4-yard touchdown pass and a 7-0 lead with 7:35 left in the first quarter.
A holding penalty on the Breakers’ second possession led to a fourth-and-13 at the El Dorado 21, but Hurst threaded a pass to Kimball in the end zone to make it 14-0 with 3:08 left in the opening quarter.
Laguna Beach then recovered an on-sides kick, but wasn’t able to cash in that possession.
However, the Breakers blocked a punt in the second quarter and capitalized on that short field when Hurst hit Stringham at the 5-yard line, where he broke another tackle and ran into the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown, stretching the lead to 21-0 with 5:39 left in the half.
The Golden Hawks (3-2) scored on the final play of the third quarter, a 3-yard touchdown run by Cameron Romero that cut the lead to 21-7, but Laguna Beach quickly answered with a 14-yard touchdown reception by Stringham with 10:47 left in the game.
Mason Shackleton caught a 5-yard touchdown from sophomore Hudson Shaddow with 4:40 left for El Dorado’s final points.
“They may be smaller in size, but they’re tough,” El Dorado coach Zack LaMonda said of Laguna Beach. “They battle, they never give up. They have a good scheme and they execute.”