By Ed Piper
La Jolla hadn't met a team like Del Norte this season. Not the Del Norte that showed up Saturday night, Nov. 25. Coming in not wildly heralded, having failed to get into the end zone in their 9-7 semifinal win over Point Loma, the Nighthawks might have been under-rated.
The Vikings weren't underestimating them. Eight-year head coach Tyler Roach knows, play the game and see what the defense (and offense) gives you. Their heads weren't in the wrong places.
Del Norte quarterback Jack Schneider, a senior, though not spectacular like the Vikes' dual-threat Jackson Diehl, was on task, focused, not making any mistakes (after the Nighthawk's fumble on their first possession), staying within the short-pass game which he worked to perfection alongside Del Norte's productive running game based around 5'7" Ryan Remigio. Freshman Anthony Mattar came in for designated plays like a Hank Bauer-like back to power for one yard.
La Jolla played a good game, once the jitters were overcome. The only problems were that, by then, the Vikings trailed 21-0 in the first quarter, 24-0 after a Trey Coleman field goal in the second quarter. And Del Norte under first-year head coach Nick Barnett was going to limit the times their opponents could get the ball on offense.
It had to be frustrating for Jackson Diehl, running back Aidan "Carolina" McGill, receiver Carson Diehl, runner/receiver Hank Hansen, receivers Nick Sebro and Kai Fukuda, and all the other names we've watched and grown to appreciate this season to fail to score on their possession starting the second half.
Then the frustration happened again later in the third period--or shall we just give the staunch Nighthawk defense their deserved plaudits?--when the white-and-black (versus Del Norte's dark blue-with-green) couldn't punch the ball into the end zone.
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