Viking co-captain Carlton O'Neal (upper middle)
and Andy Iniesta of Fallbrook embrace as
teammates Carter Simington (11, foreground)
and Collin Rugg (5, rear) look on after
pregame coin flip at midfield.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
Nine lead changes in 55-52 thriller
La Jolla's football game at Fallbrook Sept. 12 was a wild game. There were nine lead changes between the two teams, including four in the fourth quarter alone. The lead also changed hands three times in the third quarter. In other words, after an entertaining first half with two lead changes, things ramped up quite a bit and a lot of fans lost their voices screaming.
One team would score--often the Vikings through the air, the Warriors on the ground--then the other team would come right back. La Jolla scored on the first play of the game on Collin Rugg's missile to Carter Simington that went for an 80-yard strike. Unfortunately for "Luhjala" fans, the red and yellow scored soon after.
A drive by the Vikings late in the fourth quarter took only three plays to cover 80 yards, Brandon Bonham's fourth TD reception from the "Golden Arm" (sounds like a James Bond movie) of Rugg. That put the red and black up 52-48 with what partisans hoped would hold for the final score--which it was not to do.
The drive just prior to that, which started out in an advantageous position on the Warriors' 46-yard line due to Trenton Fudge's successful onside kick, needed only five plays before Joe Vang ran the ball over from four yards out.
Unofficially by my count, Bonham totaled 11 catches for 250 yards. The Fudge Man had eight catches for 136 yards and one touchdown. Simington pilfered 2 catches for 92 yards. Carlton O'Neal had nine catches for 74 yards. Da'Jour Tims added three catches for 22 yards and one touchdown.
Vang, in heavy duty, had 16 carries for a hard-earned 80 yards and one touchdown against a defense that knew that if the ball wasn't being passed, he would probably be the one carrying it. Jonathan Levenson had 17 yards on three carries.
In a La Jolla drive that stretched from the end of the third quarter into the fourth quarter, the Vikings called Vang's number five times in 15 plays to carry the ball.
La Jolla's offense ran 80 plays by my count, 32 in the first half and a whopping 48 in the second half. This was the fruition of Coach Jason Carter's goal to play a "fifth quarter": additional plays in the speed-up offense to put more pressure on the opposing defense and make them work harder and longer. The game went nearly three hours, from about 7:05 p.m. till Rugg's futile throw to Bonham in the end zone as time ran out at almost 9:55.
Combine that with two and a half hours driving in traffic for some attendees on the way, plus an hour home, and you had an afternoon/evening single feature of almost seven hours.
Copyright 2014 Ed Piper
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