By Mike Sciacca

October 22, 2012 | 3:05 p.m.

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Nothing went right for the Ocean View football team during the first half of Friday's Golden West League game against Westminster, and it was a long 24 minutes for the Seahawks.

One thing the Seahawks had in their favor, though, was that there was no quit in them.

Ocean View fell behind its neighboring rival by an insurmountable margin by halftime but played the Lions on even terms in the final 24 minutes. The effort wasn't enough to overcome a 40-point deficit, and it left the Seahawks saddled with a 54-14 loss in their homecoming game.

The setback all but eliminated Ocean View from the league title race. With two league games to go, the Seahawks (1-2) are two games behind Westminster (3-0) and one game behind Orange and Segerstrom who are both 2-1. Orange knocked off previously undefeated Segerstrom, the top-ranked team in the CIF Southern Section Southern Division, 45-33, on Thursday.

Ocean View (3-5 overall) never got into any type of offensive groove early, and it cost the Seahawks. Westminster, meanwhile, was clicking from the get-go and turned a 14-0 first-quarter lead, into a surprising, 40-0 halftime advantage.

"We tried to spread them out in the first half, but it didn't work," Ocean View Coach Luis Nunez said. "We just couldn't get anything going. We tried to get physical with them in the second half and we had better results. There was no quit in our guys."

There wasn't, not even after a first-half performance that the Seahawks would soon like to forget.

Ocean View went without a first down in the first half. In six possessions in the half, five were three-and-out series. The other, the Seahawks fumbled the ball away on a first-down play in the second quarter. They had just six yards of total offense in the half. The biggest gain was a five-yard run by running back Daniel Valencia with under two minutes to go in the half.

Conversely, Westminster (4-4 overall) scored on six of its seven first-half possessions. The Lions struck quickly on two of those drives, one covering three plays, the other, just one play. The one-play score came on a 60-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Steven Anderson to Matt Alvarez and it put the Lions up, 26-0, four minutes into the second quarter.

Anderson also rushed for two touchdowns.

The Lions' lone non-scoring drive of the half ended on an interception by Ocean View senior defensive back Tyler Clay.at the Ocean View 24-yard line with the Lions on the march.

The Westminster defense also got into the scoring act in the opening half. Lineman Myron Aqiva picked off a screen pass by Ocean View quarterback Dallas Brogue and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown and a 40-0 lead with 3:16 left in the half.

"They're a good football team and they played really well tonight," Nunez said of the Lions. "We just couldn't get anything going. The game got away from us real quick.

"We're a young, inexperienced team this year. But one thing about these kids, is that they are not going to stop working, and the future looks bright. This (score) wasn't for a lack of effort tonight."

Ocean View looked like a different team coming out of the locker room after halftime. The Seahawks took the second-half kickoff and starting from their own 26, moved out to the Westminster 42 in seven plays. The drive included the Seahawks' initial first down of the game which came when running back Nate Kwon took a pitch for 10 yards on third down. Kwon also picked up another first down during the drive on an eight-yard run.

The drive, however, fizzled, when Broge stumbled and lost 10 yards, and then his fourth-down pass intended for Cristian Negrete, fell incomplete at the Westminster 14.

Westminster responded with a five-play scoring drive that culminated in a two-yard touchdown run by David Fludd, the second scoring run by the senior running back. Ocean View finally got on the scoreboard moments later when Negrete returned the ensuing kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown. It put the score at 47-7 with 3:38 to go in the third quarter.

Ocean View scored its only offensive touchdown on a 15-play drive that spanned from 2:39 of the third quarter, to 3:38 left in the game. Fourteen of the plays, including the first 10, were run plays. The final one was a one-yard scoring run by Daniel Valencia.

The Seahawks return to league play at 7 p.m. Oct. 27 when they travel to El Modena High to take on Orange.

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