LJ FB: Sifting through the evidence

The respective team captains, including Viking
Kevin Zupkas (78 in white), shake hands at
the conclusion of the pregame captains meeting.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

Let's pause a moment to take a second look at the damage in La Jolla High's 40-14 opening loss at Central High August 17.

Things weren't really as bad as the score looks. In the first half, a Viking defense that hadn't executed well in the previous week's scrimmage held a Spartan offense, led by capable quarterback Deniro Osuna, to a single touchdown.

In fact, host coach David Pena's offense, having reached the CIF Division 4 semifinals last year with Osuna field-generaling as a sophomore, didn't cross the goal line until halfway through the second quarter.

That's a creditable job by a defensive unit in which many of La Jolla coach Tyler Roach's players have never played at the varsity level before.

The other Central score was achieved by the Spartan defense on an intercepted pass, so that had nothing to do with the LJHS defense.

Vikings defender Kelton Coburn (44) battles
his Spartan counterpart during Friday's
season opener in El Centro.
(Photo by Joseph Smith)

So, trailing only 14-0 with over 10 minutes gone in the third quarter, La Jolla was forced to put Nick Goehler, who normally only does place-kicking, into the game to punt the ball in place of Carsten Fehlan, who doubles at quarterback and punting. First, Fehlan banged his hand on a previous punt and was grimacing. (There was no penalty flag.) Finally, Roach removed him after he took a blow to the helmet "to be super cautious," as Carsten told me on the sideline after he came out.

With the back-up doing the punting, the Vikings, not once, but twice in a little over 10 seconds of time elapsed on the (constantly turning-off) scoreboard, gave up touchdowns as Goehler had his first attempt blocked, then run in the short distance to the goal. On the second one, looking unnerved from his first experience, Nick mishandled the snap, got plowed into by the Spartan punt coverage, and watched helplessly as Central's Jonathan Jazek ran that ball in for a TD as well.

Without those brief 10 seconds, the Vikings were not in desperate shape. With the turnovers, they were in very bad straits. A score of 27-0, even if it wasn't constantly visible on the Jones Field scoreboard due to the flickering electrical connection, changed the entire status of the game.

With the fourth quarter starting just over a minute later, the Vikings didn't seem to have a chance to recover at all. Their offense hadn't been able to score.  But then a TD drive with Diego Solis taking over at quarterback offered some hope.

But it was too late, and there wasn't enough time left to patch up the damage.