The Coronado High School football team played its first conference matchup against Mission Bay High on Sept. 19. Though the Islanders hung tough for the majority of the game, the wheels fell off in the fourth quarter, and Mission Bay won 49-14.
The Islanders relied heavily on the arm of sophomore quarterback Jack O’Sullivan, who finished the night going 20-41 with 198 passing yards and four interceptions.
On the flip side, the Buccaneers’ quarterback, senior Trey Arnold, ended with an impressive line of 25-35 for 421 passing yards and six touchdowns. Arnold used to play for Coronado, but transferred to Mission Bay following his sophomore season.
Senior lineman Walter Hardy said the team needs to be more consistent on all fronts.
“We needed to put it together better,” Hardy said. “On one play, we would have – our defensive line would do really good – but linebackers wouldn’t do good. But then the very next play, our line would do terrible and our linebackers would do great … we just need to play better as a team.”
One of the bright spots of the night was senior offensive/defensive tackle Stanley Guymon, who had two tackles for losses on the night. Guymon said there were two main issues with the squad’s performance on Friday.
“I feel like … just some stalling drives on offense and we gave up a couple of big plays on defense, which is bound to happen,” Guymon said. “That’s a really good passing offense we played.”
Guymon was proud of the way O’Sullivan kept the Islanders in the game in the first half, and suspects the defensive pressure may have gotten to him a bit more in the second half, leading to some of the interceptions that broke the game open late.
“I feel like a lot of people didn’t expect us to stick that close to Mission Bay … I feel like we can go pretty far as a group.” he added.
Coronado plays its homecoming game Sept. 26 at Coronado High at 7 p.m. against Mar Vista High in what they call the “Battle for Strand Way.” Strand Way is the road that connects Coronado to Imperial Beach, the town where Mar Vista High is located.
Despite a tough loss, head coach Kurt Hines emphasized that team chemistry is still strong, and his players still believe in each other.
“Morale is good heading into this week’s homecoming game vs Mar Vista, and I expressed to the team that our goal of winning league has not changed!” Hines added.
