Game-Breaking 94-Yard Romp Leaves Lucas at Loss for Words

COSTA MESA — After the game, Corona del Mar High School senior running back Brian Lucas was talking faster than he had run in the Sea Kings’ 21-10 Southern Section Division VI victory.

Words tumbled and stumbled from his mouth, piling atop each other, sliding off each other and just plain knocking each other out of the way, much like Lucas had done on his way to a 164-yard rushing performance in 20 carries for the Sea Kings.

Lucas was talking fast and loose, praising every one and everything from his coaches, offensive line and quarterback to his mother and his team’s defense.

He had reason to be excited. It was his 94-yard breakaway on the Sea Kings’ first possession of the second half that helped break the game open.

Sophomore quarterback Todd Kehrli had come out throwing with the poise of a senior who plays in title games every night. He put the Sea Kings ahead with a 49-yard touchdown pass to Weston Johnson in the first half.

Kehrli put his team ahead, 7-3. Lucas helped put the game away.

He had to recover from an injury on his second carry of the game to do it. In the Sea Kings’ first series, he took a hit to his left knee. He thought his career was over.

“It just started tightening up right when I got hit,” Lucas said. “I thought it was a serious injury.”

He iced it and stretched it and came back in the next series, but his first-half rushing performance was less than impressive: seven carries for five yards.

Then, on the first play of the second half, he took off.

“Jeff Jackson blocked his man out, then I followed the lead blocker, Jerrott Willard, inside and made one cut,” Lucas said. “There was one guy standing there and I thought he was going to make the tackle, but I don’t know what he was doing. He was just standing there and I ran by him and I was just thinking goal line.”

The Aztecs were blitzing on the play. “He caught a crease and we were man-to-man, so we didn’t have anybody back there in the zone,” La Quinta Coach Roger Takahashi said.

Kehrli said the play was exactly what Coach Dave Holland had ordered at halftime: get on the scoreboard and stop La Quinta from scoring to start the half. “That first play of the second half opened it up for us,” Kehrli said. “It gave us a boost of energy.” Energy that was still evident in Lucas’ rocking, rolling, spilling speech 10 minutes after the game.

Only when his father approached, tears in his eyes, and smothered him with a hug, did Lucas slow down.

“This is what football is all about,” Lucas said.