Spartans Travel to Pacifica H.S.

Rio Mesa (5-1, 1-0 PVL)

at Pacifica (1-5, 1-0 PVL)

Our second Pacific View League game shaped up to be a strange one and it did not disappoint. Our opponents, the Pacifica H.S. Tritons, had lost all five of their non-league games before beating the Hueneme Vikings 34-12 in their first PVL game last week. They also had a running back rush for 4 TDs in their league opener.

Our week of practice was mainly unfocused and our entire pre-game routine was too. If you want examples, here goes.

In the locker room as they got dressed they were noisy and horsing around. Now at a higher level of high school football this would really worry me but I've come to PARTIALLY accept that this is a case of Freshmen being Freshmen.

I did get worried about our mindset as two diminutive starters informed me that they left their black game pants at home, could they get another pair? All we have left are size XL, XXL and XXXL game pants...

Then a starting guard wanted me to know that he had left his cleats at home.  I, of course, was so very understanding...

Next up, a third string player who suddenly, after ten weeks of practice, wanted to trade in his helmet for a new one that fit better.  Patience...

Final locker room request, another athlete down deep on the depth chart, wanted to exchange his game jersey number. Currently his is an offensive lineman with a 70's numbered jersey but believes he would look niftier in wide receiver's number instead.  Request, respectfully, declined.

The four mile bus trip to Pacifica's beautiful, state of the art, eight year old campus begged me to move to the back of the bus in an attempt to calm the children down.

When we got to Pacifica two hours before kickoff, the only thing more immature that their newly planted trees was our 67 athletes. It was unseasonably hot with temperatures in the low 90's. Since shade was at a premium, we had the team go under the visiting stands to get out of the sun and get off their feet. I dare anyone to keep 67 fourteen year olds calm and quiet for one hour, CAN'T BE DONE.

When Pacifica's sixth period girls soccer (calcio) team came out to run laps around the track, it was the last straw! Anytime that hormones are introduced into the equation you've got additional issues as world famous lion tamer Clyde Beatty once said. Let us just say that some of our lads acted, shall we say, immaturely and will probably not be dating a Pacifica girl any time in the near future.

As a staff we decided that it was time to re-focus on the task at hand, so after our usual warm-up routine on a side field we decided to run the team for crimes against humanity. We decided to run them on our normal Monday conditioning routine of four GOOD wave 100 yards dashes. It only took them five attempts to get the four needed. Suddenly they were not so frisky anymore.

Let's "PLAY BALL!" 

OLB Sam Zielsdorf dragging down a Triton ball carrier from behind with CB Payton Palmer-Newton arriving on the scene.

This was a tackle behind the line of scrimmage that resulted in a loss of 4 yards. On the day we recorded 11 tackles for losses that totaled minus 36 yards. We obviously did a great job controlling the line of scrimmage!

TE Ben Quantock gathering in a 27 yards TD pass from QB Trenton Thornton.

Trenton was his usual efficient self completing 3 of his 4 passes for 56 yards and this TD.

#45 Zach Saldana on one of his 3 tackles for losses that totaled minus 10 yards.

Zach also blocked a Triton Field Goal attempt.

America gets introduced at half-time to the "Foca" defense.

In Italian "Foca" means a seal. One of our Falcons, a strong safety position, for the Catania Elephants had "Foca" as a nickname and we invented this strange look to take advantage of his skills. We tweaked our defense at half-time to introduce this novel look and it worked.

#26 Free Safety Darren Gales on one of his 3 pass break-ups during the game with #24 CB Isaac Castro in support.

Isaac would later intercept a pass and return it 15 yards.

TE Mitch Haerterich making a nice 18 yards grab.

Jason Ah Sue...

"Head down,  follow through !"

Player-of-the-Game, #15 Roderick White

What a GREAT story, a Tailback buried on the depth chart, he exploded on the scene in a Fifth Quarter at the start of the season. Our top two tailbacks went down with injuries and Roderick leapt at his opportunity!

Against the Tritons, he ran for 157 yards on only 10 carries and scored 3 TDs. He also starts at CB.

Who was Wally Pipp again?

#48 Ryan Paragas pursuing the ball to make a sideline tackle.

Ryan got a chance to play a lot of football against Pacifica at Falcon and led the team with 7 tackles.

#12 QB "Slick" Vasquez

One for one passing for 3 yards and a two point PAT, he also rushed for 7 yards on 3 carries.

#25 Juan Parra

Juan jumped in at running back and contributed 47 yards on 7 carries.

Mitch Haerterich throwing down the Triton QB in a flashy manner.

#29 Adrian Simental returning a short kickoff.

Adrian is coming on strong after being slowed down by nagging injuries. He is now a big part of our offensive and defensive lines.

GAME SUMMARY

Final Score: Rio Mesa 34 - Pacifica 0

We are now 6-1, 2-0 in PVL play. Pacifica drops to 1-6 and 1-1 in the PVL.

In the Kicking Game, we blocked two Pacifica Field Goal Attempts (Saldana and Haerterich) and Darren Gales returned 3 punts for 35 yards. James Turner had a bone-crunching block to spring Darren free on one of his returns. 

Offensively, we had only 35 plays but totaled 356 yards in Total Offense. Eight different ball carriers accounted for 300 rushing yards. We also did not turn the ball over.

Defensively, we held the Tritons to 127 yards on 40 plays. In large part this was due to the 11 tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

After two weeks of PVL play, we are in a two way tie for first place with crosstown rival Camarillo at 2-0. Next up for us is another road trip to play a very good Oxnard team that is 4-3, 1-1 in the PVL. They led Camarillo 9-0 before losing to the Scorpions 24-16 a week ago.

WE MUST LEARN TO FOCUS!