Defense gets tips vs. Kearny. (Photo by Ed Piper)
Now that there's time to look back, La Jolla having beaten Kearny handily 67-35 Nov. 7 and set to begin the CIF Division III football playoffs Friday, Nov. 14, who did the Komets' opening kick by Fidel Nunez bounce off before landing in the arms of a Kearny special teams player?
This set off a chain reaction of events that roiled the Vikings and occupied them for most of the next three quarters.
The kick could have bounced off any player. It just happened to be off this one player. Rather than hitting his hands, it appeared to hit the front-right side of his helmet and bounce back toward the on-rushing Kearny players, covering the kick.
Somebody on the La Jolla sideline, at the time, made a comment that they had seen something like this before.
Another piece of spice that seasoned the mix on this night of unusual happenings was La Jolla coach Jason Carter's putting senior offensive players in the Vikings' defensive backfield before Kearny's first play from scrimmage--right after the misplayed onside kick.
(Onside, though several yards longer than your garden-variety 10-yard onside kick. The ball was bounding high as it was kicked toward the right sideline from Kearny's view, left sideline from La Jolla's receiving viewpoint.)
Thus, La Jolla was flagged for a penalty, having too many men on the field. And instantly, Kearny, who normally would be playing defense right now, had its offense advancing to La Jolla's 33-yard line with first-and-5.
Carter, asked about the gesture to recognize his seniors on Senior Night, insisted, "I will use that every year. Jeff Hutzler (former head coach at Country Day, who was one of Carter's mentors) used it." He was not accepting the view that this contributed to the players' disarray at the beginning of the game.
But you could tell the Vikings were already a little off-kilter. They were unusually relaxed before the game. There were no grim faces--the norm--as La Jolla warmed up for the game. Players weren't laughing, but they didn't display body language that communicated they were worried about beating Kearny. (Kearny was 0-9 going into the final regular season game, to be 0-10 by the end of the game.)
Besides Senior Night, it was also Homecoming, plus the last game of the regular season. These had to contribute to the stew that the Vikings soon found themselves in. Having a big crowd filing in, your friends (who were all absent the week before, at a low-attendance Halloween Night game) all attending, has to make your adrenaline pump more. For young players only with experience to this point, they haven't yet developed all of the mechanisms to stay focused and concentrate on assigned tasks with the energy pumping through their veins.
Kearny's quarterback, who was destined to play the game of his life, then completed a pass to the athletic Anfernee Hamilton (he will be heard from later) that went for a 9-yard gain. First-and-10 on the 24, and only seconds have ticked off the clock.
The next pass fell incomplete, before a "chuck-and-luck" heave to Takoda Browne, who ended up being the Vikings' worst first-half nightmare as he was everywhere. The 24-yard completion made the score 6-0. Only one minute, 25 seconds had elapsed from the time of the disastrous (for La Jolla) opening kick.
Kearny was no model of calm on the other side of the ball. Coach Kenny Nears, who said before the game that Carter has been supportive and given suggestions in a non-condescending way, suffered a penalty before La Jolla could even run its first play from scrimmage for an illegal substitution. Then, after players began to set up, the whistle was blown again--Kearny still hadn't corrected the illegal substitution.
Kearny also used up two of its three timeouts for the first half in the first couple of minutes. The Komets were struggling to figure things out.
To the La Jolla offense's credit, they didn't seem thrown off their game. Quarterback Collin Rugg methodically reeled off three pass completions to Berkeley Stobo, of 11, 11, and 15 yards. Running back Reid Martin carried the ball over for a touchdown on a three-yard scamper. It was 7-6. But La Jolla missed the kick. This is rare.
According to maxpreps.com, Kearny had only scored seven touchdowns the whole season before their game against La Jolla. Then they scored five in this one game. Hamilton had not scored any touchdowns before the La Jolla game. (He is only listed as appearing in two prior games.)
Then, in short order, Kearny came back with another chuck-and-luck throw that Hamilton again took to the house, a whopping 63-yard pass play. La Jolla's pass coverage looked completely porous as the athletic senior ran it all the way down. La Jolla's defense, unfortunately, was looking like the days of old. And, the Vikings were making Kearny look much better than they are. The Komets now led 13-6. The clock had only advanced to 8:33--less than four minutes elapsed.
Interviewed after the game, Carter said: "These guys have to wake up. They don't do the things I ask them to do." He was frustrated at his players' performance, and I assume, attitude going into the game.
Sunday night, five days before the game, contacted by phone, he was asked how he was going to prepare his players to play winless Kearny. He said: "We respect all our opponents. They have good athletes. For some reason they haven't been winning." And: "They (his players) will be ready to play," an assertion he has made previously in his two years as head coach at La Jolla. But obviously this didn't translate to the players in this case.
Friday night after the game, Carter had insight when he said, "These games are always hard. 0-9..." He was acknowledging that mentally preparing for a game against an opponent that has lost all its games is a challenge.
Friday morning, the day of the game, Carter let his overconfidence show. He said in a short phone interview, "The plan is to play hard." "I've told the guys we'll get them in and then get them out." He thought it was going to be an early blowout. Obviously, his players thought it was going to be easy, too. In my two years of interacting with him and observing him, he usually doesn't let himself be caught unaware. He showed it here.
These are kids, and we're always mindful of that. They're not college players being paid scholarships, and they're not pros being paid a salary. That is one of the refreshing parts of high school athletics. If the coaches and administration provide the structure and the teaching, the kids have an opportunity to have fun, work hard toward a goal, and strive to grow emotionally as well as physically. I have heard multiple coaches at various schools, including Carter, tell their players, "Have fun."
Copyright 2014 Ed Piper
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