By Ed Piper
The bite of the Arctic-cool air, the empty stands, play in an otherwise-silent stadium. The scene was surreal, but here we were indulging in high school football in March.
Who would have thought?
I asked Diego Solis if he ever thought he'd be playing football at this time of year during his senior season.
"No," he said as he scurried around on the lower field at La Jolla High, dressing outdoors for the game with his teammates because no one is allowed in the locker room due to COVID restrictions.
"There were times when I didn't think we were going to play at all" this season, he volunteered.
But there he was a short time later, catching passes from now-junior quarterback Jackson Stratton and ranging in the backfield on defense as a veteran team leader.
I pointed out to Solis, who is going to go on to the University of Chicago to play football next year alongside older brother Gabriel Solis, that Friday night, March 12, was seventh months after their traditional opener in mid-August.
"I didn't know that," he said. Gabriel was on hand, seen before the scrimmage chatting with folks from LJHS.
The only people in the stands, in a still-restricted atmosphere until COVID conditions are loosened hopefully in the next week with numbers drastically plummeting, were the members of the junior varsity, who chomped on pizza delivered by Mr. Griffen, dad of Johnny, the Vikings' varsity center, following their own intra-team scrimmage just before the varsity practice game.
"Parents aren't allowed," said principal Chuck Podhorsky, working the sideline as one of the host school's representatives on this chilly night. "The junior varsity is just staying to watch the varsity after their own game."
Oceanside, a vaunted program that produced Charger great Junior Seau, got on the scoreboard first behind starting quarterback Jakob Harris, a senior, in an 11-yard completion to Kamron Beachem for paydirt.
Beachem is a big boy--6'5", 225 pounds. You're asking is Oceanside big in general, carrying on the tradition of the program from Seau and other Pirate greats. No, not in physical appearance. But the visitors seemed pretty adept in working their schemes this early in the stop-again-start-again season.
Pirate running back Kavika Tua--bearing a cool Samoan name--provided most of the engine on that drive, carrying three straight times to plant the ball on the La Jolla 11 before Harris's scoring toss to Beachem.
Meanwhile, in La Jolla's offense, Stratton showed his usual strong arm--he said he continued growing over the year-plus since the Vikings' 3A Southern California championship in 2019--but missed some of his targets downfield.
Coach Tyler Roach's squad finally scored at the tail end of the third quarter (0:38.5 seconds left) on Martin Jellison's four-yard rumble across the goal line. To set that up, receiver Max Raulston took in an 11-yard completion from Stratton just inside the left sideline to put the ball on the Pirate four-yard line.
From then on, it was pretty much a running clock as Oceanside pushed a second TD over with 1:55 left in the fourth, before La Jolla inserted its sophomores and let QB Justin Scully throw twice to Wallace Perry.
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