Photos by Ed Piper
Photos by Ed Piper
Photos by Ed Piper
Rick Smith, San Diego high school sports historian, supplied some info we didn't have before: La Jolla last played Torrey Pines in football in 1992 in the regular season. On that occasion, the Falcons whipped the Vikings, 35-0.
But fast-forward. In the Vikings' 21-14 win 32 years later, on Aug. 30, 2024, Hank Hansen broke up the scoreless duel midway through the second quarter with a spectacular 96-yard run to pay dirt.
Coach Scott Ashby's Birds--despite home banners reading "No Fly Zone"--came right back on the next drive with a successful 76-yard push, the score coming on a one-yard plunge by Ryder Young, to tie the game before a large crowd, 7-7.
La Jolla coach Tyler Roach's offense wasn't content to let things sit that way until halftime, employing a trick play--a flea-flicker--in which quarterback Hudson Smith fired to Hansen on the far left sideline, then Hank nailed Dre McLees-Walker with a pass from the Viking 33, and McLees-Walker, wide open on the surprise play behind the Torrey secondary, did the rest for a 13-7 lead. The point-after was blocked.
At halftime, everybody on both sides was looking at each other, like, "Can you believe this score so far?" Torrey Pines, coming in, would have had to be heavily favored, considering the status of the program and La Jolla's upstart status.
Roach, in his pregame talk with his team, addressed this very issue, saying, "I don't care if they bring in 30 busloads of players," La Jolla was going to seek to do business on its terms.
In the third quarter, Hansen, becoming a prolific scoring device, carried over from the one-inch line after a drive from the La Jolla 45, making the advantage 19-7. Roach, viewing the blocked PAT, didn't want to leave that as a lingering issue, so the Vikings went for two points after the TD, Smith completing to Carson Diehl. Diehl, an All-CIF selection as a sophomore last year, was heavily covered the whole evening.
Falcon QB Reece Morgan, not giving up the whole night, carried in from nine yards out on the ensuing drive, with 2:26 remaining in the quarter, and that's the way the final score held up.
La Jolla Athletic Director Aaron Quesnell said it during the second half of the Vikings' solid 21-14 win over visiting Torrey Pines Fri., Aug. 30: "(Head coach) Tyler Roach has done a lot for this program."
La Jolla was in the midst of sticking the vaunted Falcon program with an upset pre-league loss that not too many people saw coming. Sure, PPR and KUSI Channel 9 had set up their broadcast booth at the south end of the field with Paul Rudi and company, and Roach got interviewed on the set at 5:40 p.m. in anticipation of the match-up of two programs that haven't played each other since about 1991.
But in the Vikes' garnering this convincing win against a school that regularly has student-athletes transfer in just to play in its sports program, where upwards of 40 players stood on the Torrey Pines sideline Friday night in reserve in case a starter went out--TPHS has big football, basketball, volleyball programs, and that's just on the boys' side--Roach has brought the La Jolla program back beyond respectability after two predecessors saved it from the brink of extinction a mere dozen years ago.
And viable it is.
Quarterback Hudson Smith and company swapped turnovers with the Falcons early in the contest, then settled down to take a commanding 21-7 lead midway through the third quarter when all-purpose Hank Hansen lined up at QB and plunged over from one inch out, 5:24 left in the period, just as he did the week before in a 37-21 win over Bishop's.
La Jolla's defense held senior quarterback Reece Morgan and his offense to one more touchdown the rest of the way. It was a night to celebrate a major milestone for a storied program that once played schools like Torrey Pines on a regular basis. We're talking the 1990's, from staff members' best recollections.
The Vikings won league championships in four of the five years from 1991-1995, and we're approaching that level again with the Eastern League title winners we've witnessed the last several seasons.
Photos by Ed Piper
Photos by Ed Piper
By Ed Piper
The ViQueens have had two outings in golf so far against erstwhile opponents--Bishop's on Aug. 22, and Torrey Pines, always a monster team, Aug. 27. Both matches were played out on the La Jolla Country Club's front nine holes.
Four golfers return from last year, with juniors Cooper Gilmore and Maddie Quach combining with sophomores Isabella Itkin and Arie Williams.
It's pretty much a bunch, kind of like a leaders group in front of the peloton in bike racing, with Gilmore a shot or two over par leading Itkin and Quach a few strokes back.
Ivana Steinberg, Samantha Brodsky, and Milena Malk are newer faces for Coach Christie Quinn's posse, so we'll be following all of them this season as the fall unfolds. They'll only make it if Maddie Quach's mom continues firing up those Snickerdoodles she serves the girls before matches (and this reporter, as well).
By Ed Piper
Jerry Santoro is a senior on the Vikings' boys beach volleyball team. These comments came before La Jolla's scrimmage against Helix at The Pit, the Vikings' home courts opposite the Big Dipper rollercoaster in South Mission Beach, Wed., Aug. 28. Jake Morrison is Jerry's long-time beach volleyball partner.
You guys (partners), how do you see your roles?
We kind of split it, but it depends on what's going on. Sometimes he'll stay up at the net, and I play defense. Or if he pulls off (the net) and there's a tight set... But I'm the better defender.
That's what I'm getting at--if you play different roles. 'Cause the whole thing is to make you better as a team.
Yeah.
What do you want to work on, starting this season?
I definitely want to work on my sets, because I think I can make it definitely more accurate, so we can run faster attacks and I'll play the blockers.
You have some of the younger guys (out here). What can you do to help them do and to learn?
I specialize more in passing, so I help them in passing better. Also, shots are another thing I'm pretty decent at. So I can definitely help them with shots and passing.
School: what's your favorite subject?
Oh, I love math. I'm a nerd in math.
Why are you a nerd in math?
Numbers are very easy for me to memorize, so it just came easy to me, and I love it.
Would you like to go further in math?
I plan to major in computer science.
What could you see doing with that?
I want to go either into AI strategizing, or game scripting, because I love making video games. That's a very small hobby I have.
Enjoy it today.
Thanks.
Photos by Ed Piper
Photos by Ed Piper
La Jolla and Bishop's engaged in a highly entertaining season opener Fri., Aug. 23, until the host Vikings broke the game open in the third quarter and went on to a convincing 38-21 victory at Edwards Stadium.
Amid all the excitement of the new school year and the rivalry between Pearl St. schools, the Knights' Cash Herrera shocked the home crowd with a lightning pass to freshman receiver Graham Hill from 12 yards out for a 7-0 lead--on the second play from scrimmage before the respective student sections had even settled into their seats.
The two offenses, led by talented junior quarterbacks showing their stuff, engaged in a mistake-filled, brutal back-and-forth in the early going as Viking QB Hudson Smith, the new heir-apparent, found all-purpose senior Hank Hansen for a 39-yarder for the equalizer.
Then hard-working mini-back Ruben Gutierrez took a screen pass for a 14-7 Bishop's lead. And La Jolla sophomore Dre Walker caught the first of his two TD passes for 26 yards and a 14-14 knotted score--all in the opening quarter.
Fans were pretty delirious by then, amazed by all the offensive fireworks--including La Jolla's scare from Herrera's game-opening salvo--as Viking students dressed in all-black, their rivals in white. Good vs. evil?
The second quarter featured some of the same gridiron heroes, Dre Walker for a short scoring pass from Huddy after Bishop's senior Ian Browne took the same from the 6'3" Herrera, growing beginning his second year as starting QB for Knight coach Shane Walton, earlier in the period.
A 32-yard field goal by Evan Figueiredo of La Jolla, a tool Coach Tyler Roach didn't have last year, just before the half portended good things for the black-and-red.
The game turned on a pick by safety Ryan Kestler as Bishop's threatened early in the third quarter. That set up further runs by powerhouse back Aidan "Carolina" McGill, including a 27-yard carry on second-and-10 from the Bishop's 34.
Hansen, lining up at quarterback, of all things, plunged over from the two and the hosts had the biggest lead of the game so far, 31-21.
In the final quarter, "'Lina", as McGill is known by his teammates for his South Carolina roots, ran in from nine yards, and La Jolla led, 38-21, with over 10 minutes left in the game.
