LJ FB: Back to where it started

The Viking defense awaits the hike in the second half.
Linebackers Jack Wiese (far right) and
Max Smith (to his right) stand ready.
(Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

It started right here.

Here, at Devore Stadium on the campus of Southwestern College, where La Jolla's football team reached the 7-on-7 finals last summer before falling to a highly-touted Lincoln squad.

No one outside of Coach Tyler Roach's team thought much of it at the time. Winning in the summer isn't always repeated with late fall success under the glare of Friday Night Lights.

But on Sat., Nov. 30, the Vikings, with their fifth win in a row, the last three in the postseason, came full circle to nail down their school's first CIF championship since 1993 with an exciting 17-10 win over favored Scripps Ranch.

"I don't remember," said sophomore quarterback Jackson Stratton when asked the score of that summer league tilt before the game. In that Friday-Saturday event four months ago, the gunslinger under center began showing his potential on the varsity level.

The Viking defense, under Coordinator Charles Bussey, started to exhibit its stoutness.

And Diego Solis, who alternated as starting quarterback last season as a 10th-grader and who, by all accounts, looked to be this year's QB, began his transition to playmaker as a receiver and sometime running back on sweeps.

Looking back, all of this recent success defies what was expected lo, those months ago, in the heat of the summer.

But the seeds were sowed, first on an auxiliary field adjacent to the stadium, then on day two of the seven-on-seven tourney, the move to the big field for the final against the Hornets. Who would have thought it would grow to this?