Junior Alex Dockery motors on Vikings'
early drive at Coronado. (Photo by Ed Piper)
La Jolla's football team took the right pill for three weeks of queasy stomach--Coronado.
According to renewed and restored quarterback Casey Brown, another factor was, "We had a good week of practice."
After three big losses, the Vikings came out looking like a different team Fri., Sept. 25. Immediately, Brown and others looked lively, but more importantly, they went back to enjoying playing a kid's game. La Jolla vanquished the formerly 3-1 Islanders, 29-7.
It was the Trenton Fudge Show, as Brown connected with him twice on scoring passes, then JV quarterback Trevor Scully added to Fudge's TD reception collection once he took over late in the game with La Jolla (2-3) leading by three touchdowns.
Brown, who had looked discombobulated and had struggled ever since the Vikings' win in the season opener, confided, "I was able to pick up their defense during the week, because it's the same one we run and we worked against it throughout summer passing league."
There were smiles all around, as Viking players showed some of the skills they have which had become submerged during the three consecutive losses to Bishop's, Fallbrook, and West Hills over the past month.
Fudge provided a HUDL highlight reel play for La Jolla's second touchdown, after Alex Dockery ran the first one over from the nine with 5:33 left in the first quarter. That drive began at the 50-yard line. Fudge, showing he's feeling better and better after a shoulder AC joint injury in the opener, caught a Brown aerial beyond midfield at the start of the second quarter. He then raced a zigzag route to the western goal, cutting back multiple times to find air and bypass defenders.
Words that come to mind on the senior receiver/kicker's running after the catch include spectacular, entertaining, jaw-dropping. The pass play covered 57 yards.
"I had open space," Fudge said. "I just tried to go to where it was."
Fudge added a field goal of 42 yards to put the Vikings in the lead 15-0 a short spell before halftime.
His other TD receptions measured 57 yards, midway through the third quarter from Brown for a 22-0 advantage, and four yards from Scully for a 29-0 lead (Fudge PAT's both times) at the outset of the fourth quarter.
Coronado (3-2) did not put up much of a fight. The Islanders' sole score came a short time after Scully's TD pass in the concluding stanza to avoid a shutout.
Coronado had 166 total yards, on 169 yards rushing and -3 yards passing. Two players only attempted nine passes the whole game, completing two. Christopher Haas had 16 rushes for 43 yards.
It's amazing to think, off Friday night's most recent result, that the same Coronado team was able to beat Country Day in a preseason exhibition game the week before La Jolla defeated Country Day by 10 in the opener. That's the unpredictability of sports, and the thrill and agony of watching young athletes.
Copyright 2015 Ed Piper
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