LJ FB 25, Morse 54

Vikings QB Diego Solis confers with assistant
coach Collin Eardley in the second quarter.
(Photos by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

La Jolla's football team battled a bevy of Morse speedsters in the back field and the Vikings' own mistakes in falling to a 54-25 Homecoming decision for the Tigers in opening Eastern League play at the southeast San Diego school Friday night, Sept. 28.

Isiah Thompson led Morse's rushers--who piled up 531 yards on the ground--as the senior back scored four touchdowns against the Vikings' earnest but overworked defense. The Tigers only needed 11 yards in passing yardage on the whole night.

"We're going to run the ball 40 times, and pass 10 times," said home coach Tracy McNair before the game, which boded for a lot of activity for the La Jolla defense.

Another backfield weapon for Morse was 10.4 100-meter sprinter Shamar Martin, a verbal commit to UCLA, who played both ways. The 5'9" speed demon reeled off runs of 40 and 60 yards to put his talents on display.

La Jolla wanted to duel with their opponents' athleticism, sending receiver Gabe Solis on a 35-yard scamper in the second half. The Vikings' only scoring in the first half came on senior soccer kicker Nick Goehler's three booming field goals of 42, 32, and 47 yards, respectively.

"No, I haven't kicked one more than 47 yards before," said the smiling 6'2" soccer midfielder after his best kick. He expressed an interest in getting more field goals. But by then the Viking offense behind quarterback Diego Solis was able to put points on the board, scoring two TD's in the latter half.

The visitors led off scoring in the game on Goehler's first field goal, a 42-yarder only two minutes into the league opener. La Jolla went up, 3-0.

The Vikings trailed at halftime, 14-9.

La Jolla's defense (white jerseys) try to hang in there
in the fourth quarter against Morse's 531
rushing yards.

Receiver Evan Brown grabbed a pass from the left-handed Diego and ran 77 yards for the first La Jolla touchdown early in the third quarter.

The Solis brothers, Diego a sophomore, Gabe a senior, connected for the other LJ TD with 10:52 left in the game, bringing the Vikings within nine points, 34-25, after Diego's two-point conversion pass to Noah Marquez.

If the officials hadn't added two points for Morse after a fumbled two-point conversion attempt, that would have made the game a single-possession contest. Instead, they ruled the Tigers recovered in the end zone for a successful PAT.

Fumbles killed La Jolla's attempts to capitalize on Morse's mistakes, multiple ones in the option-play offense with pitches not being secured more than once.

The Vikings fall to 0-1 in Eastern League play, 2-4 overall. Morse moves to 1-0, 4-2.