Abbott can change the quote now because the only thing preventing Irvine from winning at Newport Harbor Friday night was CdM.
The Sea Kings brushed aside Irvine in a Pacific Coast League game to win, 14-13, and put out the Vaqueros’ six-game winning streak.
In order to spark CdM (6-2, 1-1 in league), ranked No. 7 in the CIF Southern Section Southern Division poll, to its first league victory, Hitchens used the e-mail as a motivational tool.
“It was actually pretty clever,” said Hitchens of the T-shirt he said had a picture of “Smokey the Bear.”
A fire came between CdM playing Irvine last season.
A coin flip decided the playoff fate for these two football teams with 1-2 records in league.
It wasn’t earned on the field. Rather it was heads or tails.
The coin landed in favor of the Vaqueros and they went to the postseason.
The Sea Kings went home.
A month later the school lost their coach of 12-plus seasons in Dick Freeman after CdM missed the playoffs for the first time since 2003.
Hitchens has the Sea Kings back on track to return to the playoffs after beating the No. 4-ranked Vaqueros (6-2, 1-1).
This game was huge after CdM opened league play with a 34-7 drubbing at defending league co-champion Laguna Hills last week.
It meant so much that Coach Terry Henigan wanted his Vaqueros to win the game, rather than tie it with 7 minutes, 44 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
In a defensive battle, there weren’t many opportunities. There’s no overtime in this league.
“About three seconds,” Henigan said of how long it took him to decide to go for two points after quarterback Allen Merritt hit tight end Pierce Lang on a 15-yard touchdown pass. “If we didn’t want to win, I wouldn’t have gone for two.”
Irvine trailed, 14-13, before electing to go for a two-point conversion.
