Season Opener

Michael Contreras' first day student teaching at Rio Mesa H.S.

Mike started his new roles on Tuesday, both student teaching and now coaching Rio Mesa's freshman team wide recievers and defensive backs. He has been a very good addition to the staff.

After our shaky outing in the scrimmage against Royal last Friday, we opened the season at home Thursday against Santa Barbara's San Marcos H.S. They say that the biggest improvement your team makes is the week after they play their first opponent. Our game against San Marcos, after the Royal scrimmage, is a GREAT case in point!

San Marcos took the opening kickoff and after completing a 20 yard pass for an apparent first down, the reciever was stripped of the ball and linebacker Matt Espinoza recovered the fumble for the Spartans!

Our offense methodically drove the ball down the field and tailback Martel Tyler ran to paydirt from 9 yards out for the season's first points. We missed a two point conversion to lead 6-0.

The defense played strong again and forced San Marcos to punt.

Another sustained drive saw Tyler score his second TD again from 9 yards out, again the two point try was no good, Spartans 12 - Royals 0.

Martel Tyler showed his versatility as he ended the Royals next drive with an interception.

QB Gabe Duoungtran promptly found WR Riley Fagan for a 21 yard scoring strike. Daniel Gonzalez kicked the PAT, Rio Mesa now cruising 19-0.

Mike exhorting the troops to score again before halftime!

The defense played tough again and forced another Royals punt.

Mike's pleading was answered as Fagan scored his second TD on a 31 yards run. Gonzalez splits the uprights and Rio Mesa ups its lead to 26-0.

The half ends as Kyle Henschel intercepts a desperate San Marcos pass.

Halftime adjustments were minimal, things were clicking.

The only real decision was to play the starters on each teams first possesions before clearing the bench.

San Marcos on their TD drive

Our offense started the second half with another sustained drive that saw Tyler score his third rushing TD of the day, this time from 15 yards out. The PAT kick was wide right but the Spartans now led 32-0.

San Marcos punted for a third time so we started substituting very liberally, including one player who really did not want to go in. We had to force him in against his better wishes.

He lived.

Our next drive turned the ball over on downs.

San Marcos opened the fourth quarter with a nice drive and scored on a 12 yard run by their fullback #50, oh, the joys of Freshman football. Some of our defensive starters wanted back in to preserve the shutout not knowing that I believe that shutouts are intrinsically Fascist. We let the backups play, make mistakes and learn for the future instead. The Royals PAT was good making the score Rio Mesa 32 - San Marcos 7.

A very nice, time consuming drive for the Spartans ended with a lost fumble.

The Royals only had about 25 ticks left on the clock after the turnover and tried three bombs with no time outs left. The first two fell harmlessly to the ground and our defensive end, Keleigh Marquez sacked the QB to close out a really good opening to the 2009 season!

Besides the big win, our staff was very excited that all 38 players who suited out got into the game with our backups seeing considerable action in the second half. It was great for team morale and should make for a great week of practice next week.

Our next game is at Newbury Park H.S. at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, September 18th.

Coach Contreras x 2

Nice belt Mike!

Mrs. Contreras x 2

Celebrating at Cronies after the game of course!