Wacky Football Weekend

Another long weekend of high school, college and NFL football was on tap and we had a chance to enjoy and weep over a lot of varied results. Let's take a look at what happened in the last few days.

FRIDAY

The first stop was at Hueneme H.S. where our son Michael's J.V. team was taking on a very good Oxnard team. Still low on numbers, the Vikings brought up five Freshmen to bolster the depth chart but it would not be enough as the Yellowjackets cruised to a 54-6 victory. The Vikings (1-8, 0-4 Pacific View League) finish their season this Friday at Channel Islands H.S.

As usual, I watched the first half of Michael's game before reporting for duty at the Rio Mesa Varsity game. Last Friday, the Spartans (4-4, 2-1 PVL) were playing at the home of the Pacifica Tritons (4-4, 2-1 PVL). The winner of this game still had a chance at both a playoff spot and a share of the 2010 PVL title.

#2 Jordan Nunnery

18 carries, 213 yards, 1 TD

Jordan is a two-way starter for us and makes me feel a little older as I coached his father, Swanson, in high school. As it turns out, Jordan is one of three players on our team whose fathers I once coached in high school.

#4 Marcus Alford

4 carries, 85 yards, 1 TD

75 yard Kickoff Return for 1 TD

Another two way starter, Marcus is explosive to say the least.

#11 Tanner Wrout

9 carries, 98 yards, 2 TDs

Keeping with today's trend, Tanner also is a two way starter. He has really improved his all around play the last few games.

SWARM!!!

Our starting defense played very well allowing only one TD. Pacifica would score against our backups late in the game and also added a school record 103 yards interception return but it would not be enough, the Spartans prevailed 42-21. Another 441 yards of Total Offense was certainly a strong showing by our offensive line as the Spartans improved to 5-4, 3-1 PVL.

Next up is the final regular season game at home against our cross town rivals, the Camarillo Scorpions (7-2, 4-0 PVL). If we pull off the huge upset, we would be at least Co-Champions with Camarillo and most likely Tri-Champions if heavily favored Oxnard (7-2, 3-1 PVL) defeats Pacifica (4-5, 2-2 PVL). Our problem then is that only two teams from our league get automatic berths in the C.I.F. playoffs. If there is a three way tie, the league resorts to a coin flip to determine which two teams get the automatic berths since we would have beaten each other. There are four wild card berths available to the six teams that are listed as their leagues #3 choice in our playoff division.

Thus even if we win Friday, we may not make the playoffs with final regular season record of 6-4 if we lose the coin flip. We'll see . . .

On a really good note, at 11:36 p.m. on Friday, the world welcomed the birth of Holtz David Murphy. Born in Ventura, he was 21 inches long and weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces. Congratulations Tim and Tori!

GO IRISH!!!

SATURDAY

PLU Rolls

Jason Johnson's Pacific Lutheran Lutes travelled to Oregon and beat the Pacific University Boxers 50-23. The Lutes are now 7-1 overall and 4-1 in Northwest Conference play. The Boxers are 0-8 and 0-6 in the NWC.

Up next for the now #19 NCAA Division III ranked Lutes is a big game against Willamette (7-2, 4-1 NWC). Brandon Bennett who played on our 2008 Catania Elephants team with Jason is in his third season as the offensive line coach with the Bearcats. It should be interesting.

In an Italian Football League exhibition game, the IFL's two newest franchises, the Michigan Wolverines and the Illinois Fighting Illini squared off in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

A VERY rare tackle in the game

A Nice TD Catch, one of many on the day

Here's another one

The final score was an incredible 67-65 triple overtime victory for Michigan!!!

The Wolverines are now 6-3 overall and 2-3 in the IFL/Big 10 while Illinois is 5-4, 3-3.

#1 Oregon's LaMichael James

121 yards rushing and 3 TDs

The University of Washington Huskies (3-5, 2-3 PAC-10) travelled to Eugene to face the high flying Oregon Ducks (8-0, 5-0 PAC-10). The Dawgs played tough in the first half, tied at 0-0 after one period and trailing only 18-6 at the half.

Then the dam broke, Oregon won 53-16.

There is no game for the Huskies this week as they await UCLA on Thursday, November 18th.

Speaking of UCLA, our friends Susan and Mike D'Antuono invited us to join them at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to watch the Bruins (3-5, 1-4 PAC-10) host the Oregon State Beavers (4-3, 3-1 PAC-10). We were excited to spend the day with them and see a PAC-10 game.

UCLA warming up in the powder blue

We would eventually be part of a crowd of 64,330 but in the 92,000 seat Rose Bowl that is a lot of empty seats!

The Bruin Band and the famous UCLA Script

Here come the Bruins!

UCLA Counter Play

UCLA QB Richard Brehaut's

7 yard TD scamper

The Bruins would draw first blood with this low scoring game. As opposed to the Michigan-Illinois IFL game, this was more like a Swedish American Football Federation contest.

It was 7-7 at the half and 14-14 with a controversial one second left in the game when UCLA's kicker Kai Forbath lined up for a game winning, 51 yard Field Goal after missing his two previous attempts in the game. He made it easily and the Bruins had themselves a stirring 17-14 walk-off victory!

Thanks for a fun afternoon and evening Mike and Susan!!!

SUNDAY

If it is Sunday, it must be a Cleveland Browns NFL game at the home of Helen and Rod Fujita. The 2-5 Browns, still fired up after beating the defending Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints two weeks ago and having had chance to heal up during their bye week, faced the NFL's best team in Cleveland, the 6-1 New England Patriots.

#99, Browns OLB Scott Fujita

One of his six tackles on the day

#40, Browns RB Peyton Hillis

29 carries, 184 yards, 2 TDs

The key for the Browns was the play of rookie QB Colt McCoy. He was 14 for 19 passing, good for 174 yards and 0 interceptions. McCoy made the key throws to keep drives alive and the Browns defense thoroughly frustrated both Patriot QB Tom Brady and. I'm sure, their #1 fan in Sweden, Shawn Cordeiro!

Strangely, I have not heard from Shawn. I hope Katarina has carefully hidden all of the sharp implements in their beautiful kitchen.

On a sad side note, Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis must be dead, the Raiders beat the Kansas City Chiefs 23-20 in OT yesterday. The Raiders are now 5-4 and have won three straight games for the first time since 2002! They are now in second place in the NFL's AFC West only trailing the 5-3 Chiefs.

GO SPARTANS!

BEAT THE SCORPIONS!!!