LJ FB 15, Brawley 14 - Division 3 Semifinals

After Luke Brunette's catch from Jackson Stratton for
a two-point conversion, La Jolla students mob him
in the south end zone. The catch sent the Vikings
into next week's Division 3 Finals.
(Photos by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

La Jolla coach Tyler Roach faced a dilemma. Time had run out on the scoreboard clock, as receiver Diego Solis scored a touchdown to bring the Vikings within 14-13 of visiting Brawley.

Should he go for the safe option, a point-after-touchdown kick by Devin Bale, that would tie the game and send it into overtime in the Division 3 semifinal game? Or go for broke, and try for a two-point conversion to win a place in the CIF Finals then and there?

"We were on the headphones," recounted Roach, in his third year heading La Jolla's football program. "I asked our Defensive Coordinator, Charles Bussey, up in the booth, what we should do. He said, 'That's your decision, but we'll be with you whatever you decide.'"

Said Roach, "We had the momentum. If we go into overtime, Brawley has time to regroup." Also, running back Max Smith was banged up, so that was another reason not to play it safe and go for overtime.

The head coach sent the offense out, not the kicker. Quarterback Jackson Stratton had struggled the whole game but led the last-minute march from midfield. The sophomore QB, playing the biggest game of his life, found receiver Luke Brunette open in the middle of the end zone for two points. The entire Viking student body streamed out of the stands onto the field for a wild celebration.

Brunette, a 5'10", 155-pound junior
receiver, in a calmer moment
after the flash mob celebration.

Brunette, with his most important reception, was at the center of the throbbing maelstrom as team members and classmates jumped up and down in elation.

The Edwards Stadium scoreboard, oddly, stayed at "13-14" for the score above the flash mob in the south end zone, the scoreboard operator obviously preoccupied with celebrating with all the rest of the LJHS faithful.

The Viking football team has not reached the CIF Finals since 1993-1994. In 1993, Coach Dick "Hud" Huddleston's squad won the Division 3 title by beating St. Augustine. The following year, they lost in the D3 championship game to "Uni", USDHS, which is now Cathedral Catholic.

This was in the middle of Hud's incredible streak of coaching La Jolla to five Western League titles in six years, 1990-1995--also his first years as head coach.

Roach's squad plays undefeated Scripps Ranch, which beat the Vikings earlier in the season, on Sat., Nov. 30, at Southwestern College at 1 p.m. This will be for the Division 3 championship.

Viking players exult, after the traditional
PPR interview with the hero of the moment
(Brunette) and his teammates.

Who would have thought, when La Jolla (8-4) got the ball back with 51 seconds left, down 14-7 after the Wildcats scored the go-ahead TD on two-way workhorse Blake Krigbaum's one-yard plunge earlier in the fourth quarter, that they could score and win the game in regulation, if at all?

La Jolla's Makai Smith, only a sophomore, electrified the home crowd by taking the game's opening kickoff back 91 yards for a touchdown--the first time this reporter has ever seen that in his 16 years covering the Vikings.

The Wildcats, under quarterback Ethan Gutierrez, a surprisingly poised 14-year-old freshman, answered with a score five minutes later. The QB took a keeper 15 yards to the right flag for the TD.

Then the two bruising, physical teams settled in for an awful siege over the next two and a half quarters. There were turnovers, and play wasn't always exciting. But the stakes were high. Brawley had brought in two large luxury coaches full of vocal fans the two-plus hours from the El Centro suburb, and they were visible in the visiting stands as they made themselves known.

It looked like Coach Jon Self's squad had the title game spot in hand after Krigbaum's TD with 5:54 left. But after the heroics of Stratton, Solis, and Brunette to snatch the game away, the aluminum bleachers fell silent. The Imperial Valley fans, clad in powder blue and gold school colors, filed noiselessly down the aisles as the La Jolla celebration erupted on the field.