By Reese Meister
The Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) flag football team suffered a tough defeat against the Corona del Mar (CdM) Sea Queens on the night of Monday, Sept. 25. Despite their hard work and determined plays, the game ended in a score of 0-28.
The game got off to a slow start for both sides, with neither team managing to score in the opening five minutes. The Sea Queens broke this deadlock, completing a well-executed and wide open pass into the endzone. With the successful extra point attempt, CdM secured a 0-7 lead over the Barons.
FVHS made valiant efforts, with senior Sannah Dhamija and co-captain, junior Teagan Ickes leading short runs, but they fell short of securing another down. Switching back to defense, co-captain junior Lola Korhonen displayed an impressive stop on the Sea Queens’ first down. However, CdM showcased very efficient passes and runs, and their quarterback even made an impressive run to secure another first down.
On the next play, the quarterback launched a long pass into the end zone, but pressure from senior Delaney Mondino forced the receiver to drop the ball. Mondino and her teammate junior Reese Zarzana continued the impressive defensive plays with another forced incompletion on a third down. The Sea Queens decided to attempt a play on their fourth down, though, and completed a tight pass to reach the first down marker. Directly afterward, CdM completed a pass into the endzone for their second touchdown of the game. Following an overthrown ball during the conversion attempt, the Sea Queens led 0-13.
The Barons were still in the game and started their next possession strongly with a sizable run from junior Joey Duong. This progress was quickly reversed, however, when a CdM defender leapt to intercept the Barons’ pass. After catching the ball, the Sea Queen dodged several FVHS players and accelerated into the end zone, impressively sprinting across most of the field for a pick six. Despite incoming pressure from FVHS’s junior Jaelyn Mallette, CdM successfully completed a pass for their extra point.
The Barons sent in their starting quarterback, co-captain senior Izzy Palomino, down 0-20 with two minutes left in the half. Palomino completed some strong passes to Zarzana and junior Natalie Loftis in consecutive plays for a significant gain. Unfortunately for the Barons, the Sea Queens guarded their receivers closely, forcing a series of incomplete passes and regaining possession after FVHS’s unsuccessful fourth down attempt.
With just 27 seconds remaining in the half, CdM’s first play of their possession led to another incredible run and touchdown by one of their quickest players. Although several Barons attempted to get in the way of the run, the Sea Queen maneuvered skillfully around the defenders and sped into the end zone. Having almost run the clock down completely, CdM was dominating the game by half time, leading with a score of 0-28.
The Barons had the first possession of the second half. Duong gained a few yards for the Barons with a quick run and a catch in the following play, but the Barons continued to fall just short of the first down marker.
Once CdM regained possession, the Baron’s defense maintained their high energy with pressure from Duong forcing the quarterback to make a desperate pass attempt. Mondino took advantage of the poor throw with a morale-boosting interception for the Barons.
Senior Adrianna Gordon made a significant run for the Barons on their first down, but the team did not have the chance to gain any more momentum. On the next play, CdM intercepted a long pass by Palomino, regaining possession very quickly. CdM could not capitalize on their possession, however, as Zarzana flagged down a fast runner attempting another long touchdown. The talented Sea Queen quarterback once again completed a carefully placed long pass, for another large gain. But, ultimately, three incomplete passes forced CdM to hand the ball back to the Barons.
With just about ten minutes left, the FVHS offense continued to struggle despite a strong pass to Loftis to secure a first down. Several blocked and incomplete passes prevented the Barons from making much progress down the field. Ickes noted these incompletions as an area that she hopes the team can improve upon.
When the Sea Queens regained possession, their offense similarly lagged. The Barons’ defense, with crucial stops from Duong and co-captain senior Riley Bridges, eventually pushed their opponents into another difficult position. CdM decided to attempt a fourth down play, but pressure from Duong led to another interception by Mondino, almost mirroring their previous interception.
Coincidentally, the Sea Queens also repeated their play from just minutes earlier. After a skillfully completed pass to Dhamija by the Barons, CdM’s defense took advantage of a long pass attempt to Duong, reaching out to intercept the ball once again.
Bridges and Korhonen both kept the Sea Queens’ offense contained as the time ticked down. CdM began to approach the end zone, but they opted to take a knee in the last possession of the game to let the clock run out of time, securing their final win of 0-28 despite a scoreless second half.
Despite the loss, Ickes commended some incredible efforts by the defense, particularly by her teammates Duong, Bridges and Korhonen.
“Defense did a good job of working together,” Ickes said. “Joey Duong … did a really good job of putting pressure on the quarterback.
Head coach Jacob Morado shared a similar view on Duong’s performance.
“[Duong] was a difference in that second half against a really good quarterback. She was able to kind of contain her there,” Morado said.
Morado noted that CdM is a highly ranked team, so the FVHS defense’s shutout of the Sea Queens in the second half was impressive.
“Defense played really well—that’s kind of been the heart of our team,” Morado said. “I think one of [CdM’s] scores was on our offense, so [the defense] played really well, holding that team to about 21. Again, they’re gassed—they’re on the field way too much—but they’re getting better and I think everyone else sees that they’re getting better.”
Morado’s main takeaway from the game was an optimistic outlook on the future of the Sunset League flag football program, as well as the future of the Barons’ team.
“Our Sunset league is really good … We are building on something where I think it’s going to be really great once we start taking those final steps to becoming a great team,” Morado said. “I think that we got some really good components, some really good players, and we just [need] to put it all together to play one really great game.”
