By Ed Piper
Momentum is a tricky thing.
La Jolla coach Tyler Roach tries to set his offense up to score early, then often the rest of the pieces can fall into place.
So, in the tenth week of the 2022 season, with the Vikings facing visiting Christian High for the Eastern League title, the Vike captains, winning the pregame coin flip, opted to receive.
Sometimes if the motor gets purring in the offensive unit in the first quarter, it won't burn oil and it won't throw a rod, but just start producing. A controlled explosion under the hood.
After senior Ryan Weinberg received Patriot kicker Hunter Provience's boot to open the Senior Night contest, quarterback Jackson Diehl completed a seven-yard toss to Weinberg on the right. Justin Scully, another stellar performer this year, then ran for four yards to land a first down.
So far, so good.
Another completion to Weinberg from Diehl--who has amassed over 1,600 yards in the air in nine games this season--set the ball on La Jolla's own 40-yard line.
But the Christian defense wasn't messing around, sacking Jackson for a loss of four yards on the next play. Momentum was hanging in the balance, and for the Vikings this year, post-COVID, no more interruptions to a full season, that can be a sensitive thing.
Scully's next run--the senior running back has accumulated 739 yards on the ground in the same nine games--went for four yards, not enough for a first down. To be safe in the early going, La Jolla punted the ball away.
Things were okay at this point before a home crowd with depressed numbers due to the Padres' playoff game going on simultaneously. But really, as far as the momentum/fine-tuned car thing, the Vikings have had a difficult time in forging ahead when they don't score early.
Diehl is an athletic, dynamic performer when he is throwing strikes and scrambling over defenders--and, boy, can he scramble.
But the locals weren't playing just any team, and the visiting Patriots, who have a long, competitive recent rivalry with the black-and-red, brought motivation and a dynamic quarterback of their own in the person of senior Jake Davila.
Christian didn't score, either, on its first possession. La Jolla's Brenden Goldstein, among others, made good stops toward that purpose.
But then Roach's offense stumbled again on its second possession, this time more abbreviated, consisting of only a three-and-out. That set the stage, in the presence of the Vikings' 24 seniors, who had proudly processed with their parents on the field to an orange-and-black balloon arch for photos, for Davila to engineer a touchdown with only 10.6 seconds left in the initial quarter on a quick three plays covering 27 yards--too easy for him and the Patriot offense under first-year coach Patrick Bugg.
Bugg seems like too nice of a guy for the Vikings' supposed image of a Christian football program in the past as the "bad guys" who have scrapped and clawed their ways to victories. He seemed like a genuinely good guy during a brief pregame interview.
Roach wanted to inject some more energy and a go-for-it spirit into his offense on the Vikings' possession that overlapped the change from first to second quarter. Scully took a direct snap in a wildcat formation. That bought five bruising yards, which is the way Justin has usually done it this year.
A pass to Weinberg fell incomplete. And the hosts had to punt the ball away again. Kicker/punter Evan Martin, who has had an outstanding year, unfortunately was getting too much practice early on with his punting.
Christian scored again, this time Davila connecting with big Provience as tight end. 14-0, Patriots. The Vikings were in their energy/momentum struggle again.
To their credit, Diehl, Scully, and Weinberg and company did score a touchdown with 5:26 left in the half. 14-7 now.
The defense couldn't stop Davila, running back Brady Bingham, Provience, back Aidan Hypes et al on the next possession. Jake Davila ran a keeper of four yards for a third TD and halftime score of 20-7.
The La Jolla defense didn't allow any points in the second half. The offense in the person of the hard-working running back Justin Scully put a TD across with 8:37 left in the third stanza, but that was all the Vikings could get in a tough 20-14 loss to hand the league title to Christian.
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