LAGUNA SPORTS UPDATE By Frank Aronoff | LB Indy

FALL SPORTS UPDATE

CROSS COUNTRY

Pre-season Southern Section CIF polls has the girls squad ranked No . 10 but incoming boys coach Tommy Newton-Neal ’ s team is not ranked to start the season . The squad will have runners in this weekend ’ s Fastback Shootout at Mt . SAC .

FOOTBALL ( 0-2 ) Big Plays Highlight Heartbreak loss to Dolphins 28-24 .

After the injuries received last week in Idaho , Breakers were expecting a very tough outing facing the Dolphins in the 88th season home opening game last Friday at Guyer Field . The very energized student section was cheering from the start as Nick Rogers open the game with an electrifying 93-yard kick-off return — the 14th longest in school history . The Dolphins first drive was ended in an Oliver Rounaghi interception but the Breakers returned the favor as the visitors were able to steal a reception out of the receiver ’ s hands off a long Ethan Das pass .

Dana picked up their first score

No . 54 Micah Chavez is a beast on defense

and recovered a fumble in last Friday ’ s

game . Photos courtesy of All-League Sport

Photos – Charles Bernhardt

after recovering a Laguna fumble but late in initial quarter the Breakers had a strong six-play drive to take the lead . The Dolphins came right back scoring on a 30-yard pass play early in the second period and added to it late in the period with a 64 yard run . Laguna was able to drive to the 10 yard line in

No . 1 Nick Rodgers returned a kick off 93

yards to open the game last week . Photos

courtesy of All-League Sport Photos –

Charles Bernhardt

the closing minute of the first half but was unable to score and trailed 21-14 at the break .

In the second half the two teams traded possessions for most of the third quarter with the Breakers making key stops to frustrate the Dana offense . Laguna scored on a five-play

drive capped by a big Ethan Das to Jackson Rodriguez pass play to tie the game . Breakers held Dana on their next try then opened the final period with a 11 play possession that ended with a Vance Simpson field goal using nearly half the period ’ s time .

Laguna then looked in control to win the contest after Micah Chavez recovered a Dana fumble and the Breakers just needed to run out the clock . Breakers handoff miscues stalled the possession forcing a punt and credit the Dolphins to block the attempt to give them the ball on the Laguna 13 .

After the quick Dana touchdown , Breakers made a valiant last minute try going to the Dana 12 after a great 50-yard pass play to Ryner Swanson almost pulled off the comeback . Laguna finished the possession with four incomplete plays that handed Dana their second win of the year .

Up next is Northwood ( 2-0 ) with wins over Woodbridge ( 21-7 ) and Kennedy ( 37-6 ). The Timberwolves hold an 8-4 series advantaged and will be another similar challenge for Laguna . Kickoff is 7 p . m . on Sept . 2 at Guyer Field .

SPORTS , page 24

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of the buildings are painted differently and with different roof forms . In other words , as long as the building size is camouflaged with paint and varied roofs , big is allowed — a condition that the Carmel council and their residents rejected some time ago . What are the poor , large commercial developers to do when so many beachside communities are making tighter rules against mega developments ?

The developers , their funders and commercial realtors can only do what we ’ re seeing here in Laguna — forming new PACs : Liberate Laguna / Laguna Forward / Preserve Laguna Now , the California Association of Realtors Citizens for Laguna ’ s Future Pac , and more . When you see these for-profit groups joining together to rage against Measure Q and Laguna residents ’ abilities to decide on mega-developments , you ’ ve got to wonder why what ’ s OK for Dana Point and Newport Beach residents isn ’ t good for Laguna ’ s community .

Let the voters decide on what they want rather than being surprised by decisions that get handed down from the city staff or city council . Vote yes on “ Q ”, so that you can vote yes or no on what ’ s happening in your neighborhood and town . Deborah Laughton , Laguna Beach Editor ’ s Note : Deborah is the spouse

of Councilmember George Weiss and Publisher of Methodology and Statistics of Guilford Publications , Inc .

For many years I ’ ve enjoyed reading all the letters to the editor and featured opinion columns in the LB Indy . Some of my friends believe the Indy has a bias toward one political side or the other . I don ’ t have an opinion . But there may be a simple way to find out .

I noticed the LB Indy website has a long list of printed opinions and letters at lagunabeachindy . com / poll . Most of these are comments on LTEs appear in the past month or so . I reviewed only the “ comments ” list which includes online responses to LTEs and “ opinion ” columns . I tallied them by author and deleted the duplicate comments on the same topics .

This list summarizes the number of

“ comments ” addressing unique topics : MJ Abraham : 9 Michele Monda : 8 Billy Fried : 7 Michael Morris : 7 Trish Sweeny : 4 Deborah Laughton : Christ Catsimanes : 3 Mike Beanan : 2 Peter Blake : 2

This is short period of time and may not be representative of comments over the past year .

I ’ m sure the Indy allows unlimited comments if they meet their journalism standards . If someone gets more

“ print ” that others , it may because they simply write more letters and issue more comments . The 14,000 or so that voted in the last election , don ’ t seem to write letters or comment in public .

Does the Indy have a political bias ? I don ’ t know . I do know that Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register have pages dedicated to their Editorial positions , including endorsements for ballot initiatives and candidates running for office .

Why doesn ’ t the Indy to do the same ? They follow closely the council meetings and elections , and voters rely on their reporting . The Indy would better serve their readers if they were to know where they stand on the candidates and initiatives .

Doug Cortez , Laguna Beach

What Does Q Mean to You ? What does Q mean to you ? Quality ;

Quaint ; Quiet ... What ’ s important for you as a Laguna Beach resident ? Perhaps to have a high quality of life in a quaint and quiet home neighborhood .

If so , you ’ re in luck : Measure Q is your pathway to ensure you have a say in keeping Laguna Laguna .

Beware : developers and other profiteers want to monetize your assets and Measure Q is in their way . Measure Q simply empowers residents to vote yea or nay on outsized developments that threaten the three Q ’ s above .

Measure Q was developed over a period of two years by over 200 people

and vetted by many lawyers to draw a line where the people will have a say in developments that exceed set standards that have been in place for decades .

The developers , commercial landlords , their PACs , apologists can ’ t directly attack Measure Q because as law it is rock solid . So we see falsehoods such as :

False : The City says that 29 projects submitted in the past few years would have gone to a vote .

True : The City ’ s consultant cited these projects as variances to Measure Q that dealt with City granted height variances and parking space forgiveness . Developers would have simply modified their proposals to meet these requirements and / or paid in lieu parking space fees .

False : Laguna could not build a fire station .

True : Measure Q ’ s 22,000 square foot limit does not include parking bays for fire engines .

False : The City Council just passed a city law so we don ’ t need direct democracy .

True : Any ordinance can be overridden by a 3-2 vote of City Council . The developers are spending gobs of money to get the solid 3-2 majority they have coveted for years . Once this happens all bets are off . Don ’ t you think that residents should be able to

LETTERS , page 18