By Ed Piper
Carson Diehl, La Jolla's sophomore receiver, caught six of his brother Jackson's passes for 76 yards in the 14-7 win at Mission Bay Sept. 15 in week 5.
Midway through the second quarter, the Vikings (3-2 in pre-league, enjoying a bye week Sept. 22) took over for their third possession of the game because of Carson's interception of the Bucs' Charlie Hutchison on fourth-and-eight, Mission Bay encroaching on La Jolla territory from the 40-yard line.
The Bucs already led, 7-0, on a touchdown on their first possession in the first quarter.
Carson caught a pass for 19 yards on first-and-10 from the La Jolla 18. He turned right around and caught Jackson's next pass, first down on the 37.
LJ coach Tyler Roach implemented three runs by "Carolina", junior running back Aidan McGill, and three keepers by Jackson sandwiched around an incomplete to Carson. The drive died out on the Mission Bay 36.
At that point, with the towering Hutchison (6'6") slinging it, the Buccaneers were being a little more efficient on offense. But not by much. The two teams were settling into a defensive struggle.
On La Jolla's fourth possession, a pass from Jackson to Carson Diehl was caught by the latter going out of bounds, so no chance there. But "Carolina" busted a 57-yard catch-and-run from Jackson to tie the score with Evan Martin's PAT, 7-7.
Carson soon again proved his versatility (meanwhile playing defense as a back) by returning Isaah Whitehurst's punt after Mission Bay's first plays from scrimmage to start the second half.
Fast-forward to the fourth quarter, crunch time, still tied 7-7 with an enormous Mission Bay home crowd. (The announcer had to repeatedly ask people to clear the aisles in case of fire.)
La Jolla's drive, which began with 37.8 seconds left in the third quarter--coaches were yelling out, "Let the clock run out"--saw three completions in a row to Carson for 11 and 20 yards--the third one nullified due to a flag against the Vikings for illegal procedure.
"E-Mart" (Martin, who also punts) had to punt the ball away from the La Jolla 38 after big Thomas Cook (6'3", 230) sacked Diehl.
When La Jolla got the ball back, two more completes went to Carson, the second a 12-yard gain on third-and-four. This was truly crunch time, with 1:47 left in the game, the score knotted.
After "Carolina"'s stuffed run attempt, Jackson hit Nick Sebro from the 25 for a beautiful lunging catch and the 14-7 win.
Which is all a long way to say Carson Diehl is performing up to Roach's preseason comment, "Take down this name--you're going to be hearing a lot about him," before the word on C.D. got out.
Through five games, he has caught 21 passes, covering 323 yards. He has a 56-yarder. He has one TD. That's only the offensive part.
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