By Ed Piper
"Dead quail."
Or "dying quail". It could have been either. I wrote it in my play-by-play notebook that I took of La Jolla's offense this season on the first series of their win over Bishop's, 41-19, in the season opener August 18. This signified a Jackson Diehl pass he threw that didn't hold a tight spiral, not infrequent a year ago.
I didn't note the intended receiver. I did write on the side: "partially blocked".
"Dying quails" became mostly extinct in 2023 for Diehl, who likely will be named the Player of the Year in the Eastern League this season. (Awards haven't been announced yet.) His increased proficiency in passing, in tandem with his deadly running with the ball as a dual-threat quarterback, made Diehl a nightmare for opposing defenses, including during a stellar eight-game win streak in which the Vikings ran the board in the over-matched Eastern League (5-0), propelling them into the CIF playoffs and a finish as a Division 2 finalist.
From the beginning of the season, Head Coach Tyler Roach's team used the formula that worked to near-perfection through the duration of the schedule: passes to a quick, mostly sure-handed corps of receivers (senior Nick Sebro, junior Kai Fukuda, sophomore Carson Diehl), sprinkled with Jackson's electrifying runs, sometimes covering half the field or more.
Later in the season, Roach, a creative offensive mind, added Hank Hansen lining up as a back, then taking either a jet sweep route or grabbing another one of Diehl's passes.
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