LJ FB: Second look

By Ed Piper

I came in tired, but still, even allowing for the subjectivity factor, La Jolla's home opener against Central Union was the least satisfying of the Vikings' first three football games.

Coach Tyler Roach's squad, splitting its first two games, had played exciting football coming in, even though erraticly at times: lots of passing, hard-nosed defensive work, tons of action.

But Friday's rain-sogged tilt against the Spartans had too much of the ragged variety of action. You would suspect that some of it was a result of high school students playing in front of their friends. At one point, Roach ran out onto the edge of the field yelling at one of his team members, "Stop looking up in the stands. Concentrate on what's going on on the field."

And those memories of past flubs and failures creep in when the offense and the defense both fall short: La Jolla football has been this way before, and far too much. Having to debate whether a "moral victory" was enough, and so forth.

Central, led by a sophomore quarterback with a movie star name, Deniro, clearly was the superior team on this night. The visitors from the desert had a touchdown in waning minutes annulled on a holding call. Otherwise, the margin would have been greater than the seemingly-narrow 21-13 final score.

With Deniro Osuna slicing and dicing on passes in front of and through the La Jolla secondary, and running back Jonathan Medina, another 10th-grader, carrying repeatedly for positive yards, it looked like cutting through soft butter. La Jolla's defense had not been this porous this much in the previous games.

Sure, as one knowledgeable observer commented on the sidelines, "[Osuna] throws a good ball." But a young quarterback with a low completion rate coming in was made to look better than he was.

Then, on the offensive side of the ball, the Vikings' attack was the embodiment of frustration. This time, it wasn't just interceptions, as the root cause was in game number one against Hilltop, a 24-14 loss. The LJHS offense just could not complete a drive.

And last week, at intra-city rival Country Day, the visitors had a spark and showed effective energy.

Against Central, the Vikings had the advantage of receiving the opening kick, just as they did at LJCDS, which enabled La Jolla to build momentum early. This time, the Spartans stopped the Vikes on their first set of downs, forcing Kenny Hayden to punt.

Jonathan O'Neal made an interception on the one-yard line to prevent a Central TD and to get the ball back. But then La Jolla could not capitalize, with the first of quarterback Trevor Scully's interceptions. Roach's offense seemed to be methodically marching down the field for a score, with 11 plays in the books. The 12th was the bad luck piece.

Taking over possession at midfield, the Spartans' Medina ran the ball over for TD number one, 7-0.

Once again, on the next drive, the Viking offense began constructing a drive with seven plays, but had to resort to the left-footer Hayden's punting services when stymied on third-and-long.

By now, early in the second quarter, and no points in the home slot on the Edwards Field scoreboard, defensive back Sola Hope took things into his own hands and ran back Deniro's fourth pass of the drive--the first three complete to three different Spartans--for an electrifying touchdown. The still-dry student crowd (the rain didn't begin until the instant the second half began) yelled lustily in enjoyment. The game was tied for the time being, 7-7.

That was kind of the peak of the excitement for the Norse siders.