By Ed Piper, Jr.
Just as could be expected, La Jolla's football team cut through host Hoover's defense like a knife through soft butter, piling up a 44-0 first quarter lead and 51-0 at halftime, in both teams' regular-season finale Fri., Nov. 4. The visitors took home a final 58-0 victory.
The Vikings played in expectation of the announcement of their first-round matchup in the CIF Division 3 playoffs, due to come in the late morning Saturday.
Coach Matt Morrison's first squad at La Jolla (now 6-4 overall), the first LJHS team to play in the new City League, also had an eye on the scoreboard as their 2-1 league record lent the possibility that they could end up the night tying for the league title with help from Serra.
Patrick Henry, at 3-0, went into its tilt with the Q's as the conference leader. The Patriots came from behind to defeat University City two weeks ago, capitalizing on three late turnovers by the Centurions. UC had a nonleague game Friday.
The Vikings (now 3-1 in league), spoiling the Cardinals' Senior Night, scored in the first quarter behind runs by David McColl and Alex Dockery, a long pass play to Patricio Castillejos from Cole Dimich, a run by Yohann Ponsaty, a pick-six by Nick Hammel, and another rushing touchdown from McColl. All are seniors. Tai Nguyen, another senior, delivered the point-after kicks to punctuate each TD.
After Dockery went over for another TD on a 19-yard run to the left to start the second quarter, making the score 51-0 with Nguyen's PAT, Hoover coach Jimmy Morgans asked referees for a running clock and Morrison agreed.
By then, backup quarterback Kenny Hayden was warming up to take over for Dimich. Dockery, getting treatment for a cramp in his right hip after his second TD plunge, was informed he was done for the night. "I am?" he asked incredulously.
Sideline statistician and former offensive coordinator Mike Wyskoski pointed out with one minute left on the clock in the opening quarter: "They're scoring four points a minute." That's an unprecedented clip.
The visitors added a touchdown in the third quarter on a pick-six interception by Evan Brown, to close out scoring with 58 points. Hoover did not present a credible threat to score all evening.
Cardinal quarterback Jack Fanning, a 6'2" left-hander, and mini-back Mark Marcelo, one of the seniors honored before the game, handled most of the offensive burden for the host team.
La Jolla was enjoying the ease and freedom of scoring against Hoover. They weren't celebrating to stick it in the Cards' noses. After all, Morgans' team lost an 1,800-yard rusher from last year when his grandfather passed away and he moved to Louisiana, plus other key personnel. The Cardinals kept their heads up and finally scored their only points of the season last week late in a loss against Patrick Henry. "They were big," said Morgans of the Patriots.
The Vikings enjoyed a spell in the schedule that favored them, and they certainly benefitted from the new league alignment by power rankings, which put them up against teams more comparable in ability this year.
Morrison's squad, playing its best football of the season, has scorched Serra, UC, and now Hoover in successive weeks to close out City League play.
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