By Ed Piper
The Morse offense, behind quarterback Johnny Mosti, was doing a fine job. But moving down the field, with under a minute left in the second quarter, you knew La Jolla was facing more than the Tigers who were lined up against them.
Eight plays took less than 50 seconds. The clock was, shall we say, e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y slow in ticking off the seconds as Mosti dealt to top back Damarion Wright, big number 32, out of the backfield on first-and-10 way back on Morse's own 19-yard line.
Then, four plays later, to top receiver Jeremiah Barton, number 11, for a completion on second-and-10, way up on the Vikings' 30-yard line. As baseball's Dick Howser used to say, that's a long way to drive in a Buick.
The drive only died out because the game officials, trying to stay up with the pace when the clock was running, finally declared that a first down wasn't achieved on a third-and-10 pass by Mosti. An apparent TD reception was already in the air and being caught in the end zone by the time refs blew the play dead before it was supposed to have started. And time ran out...
If the Tigers had scored on that drive, it would have made the score 14-13, La Jolla leading, with a probable two-point attempt by Morse to follow. Morse doesn't use a kicker on PAT's normally.
When play resumed in the third quarter, the winds of momentum began blowing the Tigers' direction. Mosti ran a keeper across from one yard out with 10:41 left in the third, then sneaked over for the two-point conversion. 14-14, tie ballgame.
Three and a half minutes later, after a Viking pass from quarterback Jackson Diehl popped out of the receiver's hands on a key play, Coach Tracy McNair's crew scored again. Guess who? Johnny Mosti, not a big individual, but playing big, for 15 yards and a touchdown. Ouch. 20-14, home team now in the lead for the first time on the night.
It kind of went downhill for La Jolla from there.
The Vikings couldn't pick up the slack, and they certainly weren't up to facing the whole other side of the field, going down to an eventual 39-21 defeat.
Mosti ended up 15 for 26 passing for 183 yards and one TD. He also ran seven times for 37 yards and another TD. Damarion Wright carried 13 times for 157 yards and two touchdowns. Omar-Logan Ramirez, another back, added 50 yards on five carries.
Among the receivers, Diego Sesma actually went for many more yards than Barton, 72 on five receptions. Barton went 30 yards on five catches. Wright accumulated 53 yards on four catches. Ramirez went 38 yards on a pair of receptions.
For the Vikings, Diehl was 11 for 29 passing for 149 yards and two touchdowns, with two interceptions. He has a 102.2 quarterback rating for the season (five games).
Justin Scully rushed 19 times for 107 yards and a touchdown. He also caught four passes covering 30 yards. Matthieu Princen caught two passes for 47 yards and one TD. Hank Hansen had two receptions for 47 yards and a touchdown.
Colin Levinson had eight carries for 44 yards.
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