CdM surprises, Edison tunes up passing game in Battle at the Beach

Los Angeles Times

16-07-2025

Corona del Mar was a clear underdog when Edison's prestigious Battle at the Beach seven-on-seven passing tournament kicked off Saturday morning.
'Bottom three,' estimated star receiver Dorsett Stecker.
By day's end, the Sea Kings were a cause célèbre within a 20-team field featuring Bellflower St. John Bosco, Mission Viejo and three CIF State champions, making a galvanizing run to the top-tier Gold Bracket semifinals through triumphs over San Diego powerhouse Lincoln and Trinity League stalwart Servite, followed by a fight to the finish with champion Mission Viejo.
'Clear as day,' senior quarterback Brady Annett noted, 'Our guys can play with anyone.'
The achievement means only so much — the correlation to actual football is tenuous — but it sends CdM, the only entrant who missed last year's playoffs, into preseason camp at the end of the month riding a significant high.
'It's definitely a huge confidence-booster, beating all those great teams,' said Stecker, who caught more than a dozen touchdown throws from Annett to lead the Sea Kings to a 4-2 record in a series of 30-minute, running-clock, no-rush, all-pass encounters. 'Everyone gave us a challenge. And when we get the film, I think everyone's going to be, 'We know who we are now.'
'Before, we didn't really know who we were. But now we know, for sure.'
Corona del Mar took strides in its passing game, with Annett building rapport with a corps of receivers led by Stecker, Garrett James and rising 'route technician' David Soto — JJ Haley, too, although he was limited by a shoulder sprain — and that's the primary point of seven-on-seven football. Winning isn't the real reward.
'It's not football,' said CdM coach Kevin Hettig, whose team battled injuries most of last season. 'It's something different, right? For the receivers, it's really good work in avoiding [opposing defenders], because every defender does a really good job of getting hands on [receivers] in seven-on-seven.
'It's really good to kind of clean up timing and route repetition and mechanics. But other than that, it is a different game than real football.'
Edison, coming off CIF Southern Section Division 3 and CIF State Division 1-A championships, was disappointed by its 2-3 run, taking tight losses against Santa Margarita and Gold Bracket runner-up San Marcos Mission Hills, another San Diego Section power, in pool play and Inglewood in the Silver Bracket quarterfinals.
'I feel like we could have been better,' Edison coach Jeff Grady said. 'We played hard, we just came up short. It just came down to details, I think, across the board. So there are some things we've got to tighten up. A great learning experience, and we'll move on from it.'
Mission Viejo beat Mission Hills, 23-6, in the Gold final. Santa Margarita won the Silver title with a 23-0 romp over Long Beach Millikan.
Corona del Mar stunned Lincoln, last year's Division 1-AA Bowl titlist, claiming the tiebreaker — one play, longest gain wins — on closely-covered Stecker's leaping, 24-yard sideline reception. The victory was bittersweet: Hornets receiver Braylen Ross suffered a potentially serious neck injury, halting the game for nearly a half-hour.
The Sea Kings stayed close to Mission Hills through most of the semifinal but couldn't stop Penn State-bound quarterback Troy Huhn, who generated four touchdowns on his last nine throws.
There was buzz around Stecker, who caught 54 passes for 726 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior, as he repeatedly made tough catches for first downs and scores. Annett, whose development has accelerated following labrum surgery last December, called him 'a machine.'
'I had something to prove today,' said the 5-foot-10 Stecker, who has offers from UNLV and San Jose State. 'I'm very under-recruited. Everyone says my size, that I'm not tall enough. But I keep working and keep proving people wrong, so that's what I do.'
Hettig calls Stecker a 'Swiss Army knife' and says he's 'going to be a legend.'
'That kid works so hard. He puts so much into it,' Hettig said. 'As he's become a better leader, he's becoming a better player on top of it. He can play anywhere and do just about anything on the football field.'
Edison looked good on defense, led by senior linebacker Caden Lo, conceding no more than 14 points in any game until Inglewood's 19-12 victory ended its afternoon. The Chargers topped 12 points just twice, in wins over Bakersfield Liberty and Simi Valley, as returning quarterback Sam Thomson worked on his connections with deep-threat Ayden DeGiacomo, a fellow junior often in the slot, and senior two-way standout Teo Hampton, who missed most of last season with a broken shoulder.
'I still have to work on my timing and my connection with these new receivers, being on the same page,' said Thomson, who'll also be throwing to juniors Brennan Vares and McKennon Pierce and senior Noah Roberts, who have two varsity receptions among them. 'I feel like we've come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.'
Hampton, who didn't catch a pass last year, will be critical following All-CIF receivers Jake Minter and Carson Schmidt's graduations.
'Teo's a dog,' Thomson said. 'He's probably our best [press-coverage] corner, and he can get up and make some big body catches.'
Last year's success fuels confidence but doesn't mean much. So many key figures from that team are gone, including Southern Section Division 3 Players of the Year Julius Gillick, now at Fresno State after rushing for 2,488 yards and 37 touchdowns, and linebacker Matt Lopez.
'We have to understand this is a totally different team,' Grady said. 'You can't lean on what happened last year. Last year's last year. ... This team hasn't done much. We've got to play to a standard and be the best version of us we can be.'