FOOTBALL (9-3, 3-0)
Laguna Shocks #1 Seed La Quinta 41-16, Hosts Semi’s
Laguna survived the nearly 3-hour Friday drive to La Quinta and surprised the Blackhawks on their own field with a stellar performance on both sides of the ball. The victory advances Laguna to the D-9 Semifinals to be played at Laguna on Friday, Nov. 18 at 8 p.m. at Guyer Field. The opponent, Norte Vista (9-3), from Riverside advanced with a 33-27 overtime victory over Garden Grove. The Braves are a running team and will be a real challenge for the Breaker defense. The two schools have previously met twice back in the late 80s with the Braves taking both contests (23-0 and 29-22). Laguna has made it to the semifinals 11 times and last hosted a semifinal game in 2011, losing to Corona del Mar before an overflow crowd at Guyer Field. Breakers have only advanced to the finals three times, 1946, 1952, and 1962 with their only championship, a 20-0 win over Barstow in 1946.
At La Quinta last Friday, the two squads exchanged punts after each team having a three-play possession when Laguna struck paydirt first. Jackson Kollock hit Jackson Rodriguez for a big 28-yard pass play, picked up nine yards in runs from Nick Rogers, then another Jackson to Jackson bomb for a 39-yard score.
La Quinta moved 40-yards on their possession, but the Breakers forced the Blackhawks to settle for a field goal. Laguna then marched 80-yards to score on a Kollock to Ryner Swanson pass play to complete the first quarter scoring. La Quinta then returned the favor with their own 68-yard drive, scoring early in the second period, and the teams traded touchdowns until halftime.
Breakers opened the second half with an on-side kick recovery but could not take advantage of the opportunity. La Quinta looked like they would get back into the game quickly but turned the ball over on downs at the Laguna 20 and missed a 35-yard field goal on their second drive to the Laguna 18.
Breakers then stunned the home crowd when Nick Rogers had a classic 66-yard touchdown run for a score, and the ensuing Blackhawk drive was lost on a fumble at the Breaker 22. From that point, the momentum of all Laguna as the Breakers controlled the final period.
Individual Statistics
Rushing: Rogers 17-108, Kollock 7-10, Team 2-(9)
Passing: Kollock 34-25-0 365 yards 4 TD’s. Fourth best individual game performance
Receiving: Rodriguez 7-111, Swanson 4-54, Rogers 3-38, Donaldson 2-15, Mulkay 4-87, Freeman 4-58, Garwal 1-2
Interceptions: Rounaghi 1-9
Fumbles: Garwal recovered 2
Punt Returns: Rodriguez 1-4
Kick-off Returns: Rodriguez 4-55 yards
Punting:Rodriguez 3-117 39.0 average
Records set:
Sophomore passing – season Jackson Kollock on attempts, completions, yards, TD passes.
CROSS COUNTRY
The Girls advanced to the SSCIF D-4 finals this past Saturday, finishing third in their heat and ninth overall with a 1:40:36 team time. As expected, Yolo Javier led the squad with a 19:35.2 time for the 3-mile course. The squad will race early on Nov. 19 with a 7:45 a.m. start time at the Mt SAC course. Only the top seven teams in the finals will then advance to the State Meet to be held on Nov. 26. On the boys’ side, Christopher Drews finished 15th in his heat out of 61 runners but did not make the cut to run in the D4 finals.
For more information, visit www.lbxc.org for girls’ cross country, and www.lagunabeachcrosscountry.com for boys.
BOYS WATER POLO (18-11)
Breakers got off to a slow start on their semifinal contest with Foothill on Nov. 9 at the Woollett Center in Irvine and, despite a great comeback, fell short in a 6-5 loss to the Knights. Foothill was very aggressive from the start and completely limited the Laguna offensive holding the squad to very few shots. Foothill led 6-1 with 1:09 remaining in the third quarter before Laguna started their comeback that almost succeeded. Tyler Swenson was exceptional in the cage with seven saves, while Sai Bassett and Cade Anderton scored two.
2022 FINAL Season scoring leaders: 74 – Cade Anderton, 67 – Diego Audebert, 41 – Sai Bassett, 35 – Coleman Judd, 22 – Eli Taub.
WINTER SPORTS
BOYS BASKETBALL
Breakers opened the Jim Harris Tournament at Ocean View High School on Tuesday with a 72-53 loss to Millikan. Jack Halvorson led the Breakers with 20 points in a game the Rams took control in the second half. Play continues thru Saturday, Nov. 19 in the 16-team tournament. Next week Laguna is in the Marina tournament and will play Paramount on Nov. 22 to open play.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Laguna opened the 2022-23 season easily defeating Rancho Alamitos (5A) 66-24 on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at Dugger Gym. Breakers have a lengthy non-league schedule before facing the grueling 10-game Sunset schedule. Laguna was 3-3 in Sunset Wave League action last season and hopes to be equally competitive this season. After advancing to the 5AA semifinals last season, Breakers are in the next highest division for this season, D-4A.
Breakers are home on November 22, 6 p.m. against Costa Mesa (5A) and will host Loara (5AA) on Dec. 1.
Other winter teams:
Soccer quads open play next week and Girls Water Polo and Wrestling get underway after the Thanksgiving holiday break.
Looking for the 2022-23 High School schedules and scores?
Football, G Volleyball, and Water Polo scores and rosters can be found on the Max Preps website.
