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Week 15 in Review
San Diego Section Finals
Helix, Valhalla fall short in title games

Posted Dec. 15, 2008
Tears turned to cheers and vice versa for members of the Oceanside and Helix high school football teams as the final dramatic seconds of last Friday’s San Diego Section Division II championship game played out at Qualcomm Stadium. For the Highlanders, it proved to be the latter — cheers to tears — as Oceanside’s Rene Siluano intercepted a surprise “pop pass” from Helix quarterback Ty Culver in the end zone with 42 seconds remaining in the game to preserve a 23-19 Pirates victory.

The division title was the fifth consecutive for Oceanside — a section record. Three of those five CIF championships have come against Helix.

The third-seeded Highlanders (10-2-1) all but appeared ready to end top-seeded Oceanside’s dominance of the division after earning a first-and-goal series at the Pirates’ one-yard line with 1:03 to play. Oceanside (12-0-1) repelled Helix’s first attempt at the end zone, throwing standout runner Travon Van for a one-yard loss.

That left the Scotties with three plays to punch the ball in from the two-yard line with plenty of time left in the game. The Helix coaching staff, however, gambled by calling an unorthodox play on second down. Culver took the snap and jumped up like a basketball player, though in this instance, throwing the ball downward instead of upward. The pass was intended for 6-foot-8 tight end Levine Toilolo. But the pass fell short of its intended target and Siluano — who was canvassing the end zone for a pass — moved up to catch the ball.

A massive celebration ensued on the Pirates’ sideline as Oceanside snatched a win from what appeared to be almost certain defeat.

The heart-pounding finish to this year's Division II championship game has to rank as one of the most exciting in section history.

“This was it,” section commissioner Dennis Ackerman said. “This game ranks up with the best of them.”

While Oceanside, the defending Division II state champions, might have appeared to have “escaped” with the win, it’s also true that good teams always seem to find a way to win. And there’s no denying the Pirates are an awfully good team. But the Highlanders proved they were right up there. In fact, the Scotties led, 19-16, at halftime.

Helix set up its goal-line scoring opportunity on the arm of Culver and the acrobatic pass-catching ability of Trelan Taylor, who set the Highlanders' potential game-winning drive in motion with an interception on defense at the Scotties' 36-yard line with 3:02 to play.

Culver connected with Taylor on a 41-yard bomb to place the ball at the Oceanside 19-yard line. On a crucial third-down conversion play, the duo connected for 15 additional yards.

Van, who rushed for 90 yards in the game, got the call on first-and-goal.

Two missed extra points earlier in the game left Helix with a four-point deficit rather than trailing by two points, and thus forced the Scotties to go for a touchdown rather than to simply run the ball at the Pirates' line and, if not successful, to go for a game-winning field goal.

In retrospect, it might be unfair to question the "pop pass." If the surprise play had worked and the Highlanders won, it would have been termed a brilliant piece of strategy.

Toilolo said the team had practiced the play but never used it in a game situation but didn't question the call to use it.

The defenses on both teams played takeaway football. Oceanside quarterback Jordan Wynn was intercepted three times while Culver was picked twice. Each team could easily have scored another touchdown in the game.

Jo-Jo Phillips intercepted a Wynn aerial in the end zone and returned the ball 70 yards to the Oceanside 33-yard line to keep the Highlanders in position to possibly win the game.

Conversely, the Scotties were denied precious points when Oceanside’s King Holder ended a drive at the Pirates' nine-yard line with a third-quarter pick.

The game opened on an ominous note for the Grossmont South League champions. Oceanside recovered an onside kick to start the game and went up 7-0 with just 57 seconds elapsed in the contest when Wynn hit Demario Coleman on a 26-yard scoring pass. Helix responded with a 57-ard scoring drive capped by a five-yard touchdown run by Culver. But the extra-point attempt was wide, leaving the defending state champions with a tenuous 7-6 lead.

The scoring drive was set up by an interception.

The teams traded touchdowns to open the second quarter. Holder capped a 64-yard drive on a one-yard scoring run to put Oceanside up 13-6 after a botched snap on the PAT conversion attempt.

The Scotties then tied the score at 13-all when Culver scored on a three-yard run. Again, the Helix defense set up the scoring drive when Paul Blakeney recovered a fumble.

The Pirates promptly drove down the field once again but this time the Helix defense forced a 41-yard goal attempt from Jose Velasquez. Oceanside led 16-13 with 32 seconds left in the first half.

The Highlanders completed scoring in the first half in dramatic fashion as Taylor returned the ensuing kick-off to the Oceanside 25-yard line with 23 seconds left. An incomplete pass stopped the clock with 17 seconds to play. On the next play, Van promptly wove through the Pirate defense to score on a 25-yard run with nine seconds remaining before intermission. But extra point once again sailed wide, leaving Helix with a three-point lead.

Oceanside received the ball in the second half and scored on their first drive, with Jake Fely capping the 77-yard field march on a one-yard TD run with 6:55 to go in the third quarter.

The Pirates finished the game with 19 first downs to Helix’s nine. The Highlanders held a narrow 106-104 edge in rushing yards but Wynn (16-for-33, 300 yards) won the battle through the air against Culver (nine-for 16, 147 yards) by doubling up in passing yardage.

Sean Linton caught two passes for 79 yards while Taylor’s two fourth-quarter catches went for 56 yards. A 22-yard Culver-to-Linton pass helped set up the Scotties' second TD of the game.

Culver finished as one of Helix's all-time most successful quarterbacks with 1,948 passing yards in one season while throwing 22 scoring passes and rushing for 640 yards and eight touchdowns.

Siluano rushed 14 times for 77 yards to lead the Pirates while Coleman caught two passes for 81 yards, Holder had five catches for 48 yards and Osmond Nicholas made three catches for 26 yards.

Wynn finished the season with 3,293 passing yards and 32 touchdown passes. Coleman led the Pirates with 15 touchdowns on the season, including 12 TD catches.

Despite all the game's excitement, Oceanside was denied the chance to defend its state title when Division III section champion Cathedral Catholic (13-0) was selected to represent the Southern California in this Saturday’s Division II State Bowl game at The Home Depot Center in Carson.

For Helix, the football season resumes next August, though the memories will linger for some time of what might have been.

Orange nation
The visitors' side of Qualcomm stadium was transformed into a sea or Orange as the third-seeded Valhalla Norsemen blazed new territory with their first-ever CIF finals appearance. While the Norsemen (11-2) had multiple chances to make a mark early in the gridiron proceedings, it was the top-ranked Cathedral Catholic Dons (13-0) who executed to near precision throughout the game to claim a 49-13 victory.

By virtue of their perfect season, Cathedral Catholic earned the nod to play in this weekend's State Bowl.

The Norsemen attempted to employ a ball possession offense and for the most part it worked through the opening half of play despite trailing 21-6. Valhalla took its opening possession down to the Cathedral Catholic three-yard line before turning the ball over on downs. Junior quarterback Pete Thomas, who also handles place-kicking duties, fell just short on a 55-yard field goal attempt to end the Norsemen's second possession as the first quarter ended in a scoreless tie.

Valhalla continued to hold the run of play as Wesley Parker intercepted a Parker Hipp pass and returned the ball to the Cathedral Catholic 11-yard line. Thomas passed to James Leighton two plays later for an 11-yard touchdown to put the Norsemen ahead 6-0 after the extra-point attempt was blocked.

The Dons, ranked first in the state, responded with three touchdowns to lead 21-6 but it appeared Valhalla was ready to make a game of it once again by driving to the Cathedral Catholic one-yard line in the dying seconds of the first half. But the Norsemen promptly fumbled the ball while the seconds ticked down.

With better execution and a better bounce of the ball, the Norsemen easily could have had two more touchdowns in the first half to play the Dons’ to a stalemate.

The second half, however, was another story as Cathedral Catholic racked up a lethal 28-7 scoring margin to win going away.

Leighton scored on a two-yard run in the third quarter after the Dons had built a 35-6 lead.

Bad-timing and penalties haunted Valhalla in the second half. One example: Traivonne Brown had a fine 97-yard kick-off return for a touchdown negated on a penalty.

While obviously disappointed, members of the runner-up Valhalla team held their heads up after the game.

"Not too many people might have believed at the start of the season that we could get to the Q but all of us in the locker room believed that we could get to the Q," Thomas said. "We practiced hard and we believed in ourselves. We're the first Valhalla team to get to the Q."

Thomas finished the game with 254 passing yards by completing 24 of 32 attempts. Matthew Swanger led Valhalla's receiving corps with seven catches for 92 yards while Leighton had six grabs for 67 yards Thomas passed for 3,161 yards and 28 touchdowns (against just five interceptions) on the season, while rushing for seven additional scores and kicking seven field goals.

Derek White led the Grossmont South League runners-up with 693 receiving yards while Leighton (630 receiving yards) led the team with eight TD catches. Swanger (679 receiving yards) had seven TD catches.

The Norsemen finished with just 12 rushing yards as a team against the tough Cathedral Catholic defense. Thomas rushed 12 times for negative 31 yards while Brown led the team with 39 yards on nine carries.

The Dons racked up 212 rushing yards and 235 passing yards for 447 total yards in offense. The Norsemen totaled 267 offensive yards.

Tyler Gaffney, the section's all-time single season touchdown leader, keyed Cathedral Catholic with 156 rushing yards on 18 carries and caught two passes for 98 yards. He scored two rushing touchdowns (runs of 20 and 31 yards) and two receiving touchdowns (catches of 56 and 42 yards).

Parker Hipp completed nine of 16 passing attempts for 207 yards.

Gaffney enters the State Bowl game against Stockton St. Mary's with 51 touchdowns on the season. He has rushed for 2,537 yards and scored 44 rushing touchdowns.

South County’s CIF football champions
Area players help Dons, Francis Parker Win divisional titles

Posted Dec. 18, 2008
While a South County team did not land a berth in this year’s San Diego Section divisional football finals, several South County players — namely, Cathedral Catholic junior offensive lineman Alex Crosthwaite and Francis Parker’s Kenny Brookins, Delante Dunklin, Dominic Gerace, Brian Levett and Enrique Espinosa — all earned CIF title with their respective teams.

Crosthwaite, who lives in Eastlake but commutes to his school’s Carmel Valley campus, will be joining the Dons in Saturday’s Division II State Bowl championship game against Stockton St. Mary’s (12-2) at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

“We’re one big family,” said Crosthwaite, who has won two consecutive San Diego Section Division III championships as a member of Cathedral Catholic’s football team. “Our secret to success this year has been great practices. We practice together. There is no separation between the defense and offense. There are no cliques.”

At six feet, five inches and 295 pounds, Crosthwaite stands as one of the Dons’ most imposing players. Only senior lineman Everett Benyard (6-6, 320) is physically larger. Much credit has to go to the team’s offensive line in opening holes for standout runner Tyler Gaffney, who set a new section record this season with 47 touchdowns in the regular season. Gaffney scored four touchdowns in the top-seeded Dons’ 49-13 championship game victory against the third-seeded Valhalla Norsemen last Friday at Qualcomm Stadium to give him 51 TDs entering the State Bowl championship game.

Gaffney, who is the leading candidate to be named this year’s San Diego Section Offensive Player of the Year, said all the individual accomplishments pale in comparison to the team’s 13-0 record — the first undefeated season in school history.

The Dons are currently ranked No. 1 in the state.

Crosthwaite said he is already looking forward to his senior year with the team, though one game remains on the 2008 schedule. Cathedral Catholic may lose senior standouts such as Gaffney, running back Jose Balistreri, receiver Brad Harrington and quarterback Parker Hipp to graduation, but is in line to return the bulk of its outstanding defensive unit.

“With the people and the experience we have coming back, we should be successful again next year,” he said.

The Dons are currently working on a 20-game section winning streak.

Lancers claim Division V title, roll to 12th consecutive win
The Lancers dropped their opening game of the 2008 season by three points to high-powered Westview, 27-24, and then went on a 12-game winning streak to close out the pigskin campaign — one crowned by last Saturday’s 51-22 Division V championship game victory against The Bishop’s School at Southwestern College.

“A lot of it was concentration,” said Brookins, a sophomore linebacker/running back. “We believe in our game plan. If we execute our plays, all of us succeed. Football is a team sport. Every player on the field has a job to do and you are successful if everyone does their job.”

Brookins is among three former Eastlake Panthers youth football players on the Francis Parker roster. He joins Levett, a freshman linebacker, and Espinosa, a sophomore safety, in a reunion of sorts with the Lancers.

Dunklin is a linebacker/quarterback while Gerace is a cornerback/receiver.

Brookins, Dunklin and Levett all had the chance to carry the ball this season. Dunklin averaged 7.0 yards per carry while Brookins averaged 6.6 yards per carry and Levett averaged 6.1 yards per carry. Brookins averaged 4.7 tackles per game while Dunklin averaged 4.4 tackles per game and Levett averaged 4.1 tackles per game.

Francis Parker averaged 51 points on offense and allowed an average of 16 points on defense in forging its 12-game winning streak. The Lancers dethroned previous Coastal League champion Christian, 45-21, in the regular season finale for both teams to capture this year’s league title.

Brookins said the team’s championship mentality started at the onset of the season.

“That loss in that first game made us mad,” he said. “It is what motivated us to win all the rest of our games this season.”

Westview finished 9-3 on the season, defeating Hoover, 38-0, in the opening round of the Division II playoffs before ending their season with a 41-21 loss to fourth-seeded Scripps Ranch in the quarterfinals.

Francis Parker entered this year’s championship game ranked 14th in the final San Diego Sportswriters/Sportscasters weekly poll. There are 95 teams in the section.
The Lancers were in consideration for a State Bowl championship berth in the Small Schools Division but that went to San Juan Capistrano St. Margaret’s (14-0) instead based on strength of schedule, according to Ken Gunn, the state bowl games director.

Junior quarterback Deon Randall lit up the scoreboard at DeVore Stadium by throwing for four touchdowns and rushing for three more. Randall, who finished the season with more than 1,000 yards both rushing and passing the ball, racked up 163 rushing yards on 16 carries and threw for 132 yards. He set up two touchdowns with punt returns of 43 and 32 yards.

Two of Randall’s TD passes went to Myles Muagututia (five catches, 62 yards) while DeMaree Harris (15 yards) and Roland Jackson (30 yards) also caught scoring passes.

The Lancers responded from an early 6-0 deficit by racking up 30 unanswered points. Francis Parker withstood a pair of touchdowns in the final 3:26 of the second quarter to prevail with a 21-0 scoring bulge in the second half.

The Knights paraded a complement of seven South County players — wide receiver Hector Eribez, offensive lineman Erick Owens, quarterback Joey Moreno, offensive/defensive lineman Rey Felix, running back Jacob Kelly, wide receiver Nathan Hickman and wide receiver/defensive back Micah Seau — onto the field. All made significant contributions to the team in not only the championship game but also throughout the season.

Kelly scored two touchdowns and also made a key two-point conversion run and Moreno threw a touchdown pass to Eribez to help Bishop’s trim the Lancers’ halftime lead to 30-22.

Moreno directed the Knights to a touchdown on their first possession of the game, as Kelly capped the 80-yard scoring drive that took 7:00 off the clock with a 13-yard touchdown run. Kelly later scored on a 23-yard run to take a bite into a 30-7 Francis Parker lead.

Bishop’s then recovered an onside kick at their own 49-yard line and Moreno capped the scoring drive with a 17-yard pass to Eribez. Kelly then scored on the two-point conversion run to make it an eight-point game.

But the second half belonged to Francis Parker, which extended its lead to 37-22 with the only touchdown of the third quarter and iced the game on a cold and blustery night with two more scores in the final quarter.

Lancers coach John Morrison credited his defense’s second-half stand as the turning point in the game. “They were starting to come on offensively and our defense changed the momentum in the game,” he said.

A catch by Hickman for sizable yardage helped set up the Knights’ opening touchdown drive. Seau, the nephew of former Chargers’ standout Junior Seau, also made key plays throughout the game.

Kelly averaged 7.1 yards per carry during the season while Seau averaged 5.4 yards per carry. Moreno had racked up 1,691 passing yards and 19 touchdowns against eight interceptions entering the championship game. He had completed 61.8 percent of his passes in the 13 games leading up to last Saturday’s title tilt.
Eribez and Hickman also got in the scoring column over the course of the season. Seau averaged 8.1 tackles on defense (second most on the team) while Felix averaged 3.9 tackles per game, Hickman 3.5 tackles per game and Owens 2.8 tackles per game.

Senior running back/defensive back Mike P. Jensen was the team’s gridiron warrior. He led Bishop’s with 9.5 tackles per game and scored 14 touchdowns in 13 games.

Knights head coach Mike David was returning to familiar territory after leading Bishop’s to a 13-0 record last year and five finals appearances and three division titles with Marian Catholic. He noted the Knights may have been one of the few teams in section history to go winless in league play (0-4) and make it to the division championship game.

“We had a lot of young players on our team this season,” he said. “We had a freshman quarterback and eight underclassmen starters. We got better as the season went on and into the playoffs.”

College Football:
Poinsettia Bowl tabs WAC opponent in back-up plan

Posted Ocr. 30, 2008
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl officials recently announced they have signed a contingency agreement with the Western Athletic Conference that impacts the 2008 and 2009 bowl games.

The contract stipulates that if the bowl’s agreement with the Pacific-10 Conference doesn’t yield a bowl eligible team with six or more wins, then the Poinsettia Bowl will get a team from the Western Athletic Conference.

The bowl’s primary agreement with the Pac-10 calls for the San Diego post-season game to receive the seventh place team. The WAC agreement is activated only if that seventh place Pac-10 team fails to reach the required six wins.

Currently, UCLA occupies seventh place in the Pac-10 standings with a 2-3 conference record, 3-5 overall.

The Pac-10 or WAC participant will face a team from the Mountain West Conference. The bowl receives the second selection from the MWC; the Pioneer Las Vegas Bowl picks first.

"The WAC looks forward to returning to San Diego and hopefully playing in the Poinsettia Bowl this December,” WAC Commissioner Karl Benson said. “There is so much history and tradition with the 'red coats' dating back to the ’80s and ’90s. I know our teams and fans are very excited with this possibility."

The WAC participated in 18 of the first 20 Pacific Life Holiday Bowls. The Holiday and Poinsettia Bowls are produced by the same organizers, the “red coats.”

“We are really excited about this partnership,” 2008 Poinsettia Bowl President Larry Baber said. “This contingency plan assures us a great matchup and creates a natural and necessary regional tie.”

The fourth annual San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl kicks off at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 23 at Qualcomm Stadium. The game is televised on ESPN. For ticket information, visit www.PoinsettiaBowl.net or call (619) 285-5061.