By Ed Piper
We haven't even played the season opener, at this writing (Aug. 19), so this is getting ahead of ourselves a little.
But in week 2, at home against Torrey Pines, La Jolla is going to encounter a bigger, taller opponent than their normal--the Falcons play in Division 1, and bodies like junior Ari Fishman (250 pounds), senior Will Schreckengaust (240), sophomore David Choy (240), and senior Saardhat Nagaram (240) are the norm on their published roster on MaxPreps.
On the Vikings' roster, Jett Thomas (295 pounds) pops out--he stands 6'4". But mass drops quickly from Jett to Zach Gergurich (255), currently sidelined, then Adam Beckert (230), and so on.
Another issue is the reason shorter quarterbacks get slammed: the Vikings' Hudson Smith, who looked good in La Jolla's opening scrimmage against Chula Vista Aug. 17, stands six feet, at the most, and more like 5'11", maybe even last year's listing of 5'10".
He will have to look for receivers over the Torrey Pines mountains of young men trying to get at him, including Jacob Bronstein (6'6"), Camden Nishnick (6'4"), Nagaram (6'4"), Schreckengaust (6'4"), and so forth.
It will be a good, early test for Coach Tyler Roach's Vikings--linemen and backs.
The pure matter of mass plays in: The unmoved mover must push against someone who weighs a lot more than they do, or something like that, the saying goes. That takes strength and physicality.
Over the span of several series, in multiple quarters, we'll want to observe how well the Viking linemen stand up to the stress.
Roach always tells his players at the start of a workout or game, "Let's go have fun and fly around" hitting people. He likes the physical nature of the game, fought in the pit between the offensive and defensive lines.
Only a week later, in week 3, La Jolla goes up against Madison at home. That's the way Roach scheduled it, and that's the way he wants it.
La Jolla never pushed their limits during QB Jackson Diehl's era the past two years, not quite like this.
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