I'm Glad You Asked

In a matchup that could have placed your beloved Wildcats on top of the Foothill League, the home eleven fell to a talented Saugus team by 21 points.

We told the kids afterwards that they played hard, which is true: they also played badly, which is also true. Execution was the name of the game on Friday, and Saugus had it while we did not.

Offensively, we had some big plays: a hook-and-ladder play to start the game went for fifty yards or so, and an off tackle breakaway to start the second half went almost as long. But we were unable to capitalize on those big plays and ended up not scoring at all until the end of the game. We were able to move the ball inside the twenties, and probably had a couple hundred yards in total offense, but none of that really mattered since we could not put up the points. We also made some critical errors on offense that put our defense in tough spots.

Defensively, although we had many flashes of good execution, we suffered critical breakdowns in key situations that kept Saugus alive. Players played hard but forgot techniques and assignments, which Saugus used against us.

Special teams neither hurt us nor helped us much: we missed a field goal early (turns out it would not really have helped) and missed our first onside of the year late in the game.

We still believe in the effort and heart of the team--we have since watching them against Glendora. We have yet to put all of our talents and energies together for a sustained 48 minute game. When and if we can do that, I truly believe we can be formidable.

Current Foothill JV Standings:

1. Saugus 2-0 (def. West Ranch 28-7: next vs. Golden Valley)
1. Canyon 2-0 (def. Hart 38-0: next vs. West Ranch)
3. West Ranch 1-1 (lost to Saugus 28-7: next vs. Canyon)
3. Valencia 1-1 (def. Golden Valley: next vs. Hart)
5. Hart 0-2 (lost to Canyon 38-0: next vs. Valencia)
5. Golden Valley 0-2 (lost to Valencia: next vs. Saugus)

Next Week: Canyon!

Your West Ranch Wildcats accomplished many of their league opener goals on Friday evening:

1. We wanted to end a two-game losing streak.
2. We wanted to climb back to .500.
3. We wanted to be in the top half for JV Foothill league teams.

All of that was accomplished with our sometimes uneven victory against Golden Valley.

Before a recap of the game, let me say that it is very impressive to see how far GVHS has come in two years. They have improved from disbanding a team in 2006 to fielding a weak team in 2007 to this respecatble team in 2008. If Golden Valley continues to improve, they will give some teams some trouble very soon.

Now, the game.

We scored a very quick 21 points against GV while holding them to nothing in the first quarter. Almost everything we did on offense was highly successful, and we were able to hold GV's offense.

The second quarter, however, was a different story. We either became complacent or tired or something, because we allowed GV to score twice before half and reenergized the entire Grizzly sideline. It was a complete meltdown: we suddenly had enormous trouble tackling and we turned the ball over on offense.

To start the second half, GV took over on their own 20 and proceeded to drive 80 yards to score. They had missed their first two extra points, so they went for 2 and got it.

The score was then 21-20. We led by one point.

To our offense's credit, we scored fifteen points to put the game out of reach before we could use some of our reserves, and we took time doing so. With about 8:00 left in the game, we were up I think 36-20.

Our second offensive unit then drove the field and scored against GV's first unit, and we are very proud of our second team line, receiver corps, and quarterback. They played admirably well and did not let up, making the score 43-20.

Golden Valley scored on our second unit to make the final score 43-28.

We have much to work on defensively, and the entire squad has to know that a football game is made up of 48:00 and is never over until the final gun. We face a Saugus team that is also 1-0 in league, having defeated Hart's JV's with what I think was a 28-7 score. In fact, here are the scores as I understand them:

West Ranch 1-0 (def. Golden Valley 43-28: plays Saugus next)
Saugus 1-0 (def. Hart 28-7: plays West Ranch next)
Canyon 1-0 (def. Valencia 45-47: plays Hart next)
Valencia 0-1 (lost to Canyon 48-46: plays Golden Valley next)
Hart 0-1 (lost to Saugus 28-7: plays Canyon next)
Golden Valley 0-1 (lost to West Ranch 43-28: plays Valencia next)

Next Week: Saugus!

In a fiercely-fought battle that went down to the last few seconds, your Wildcats came up just short against a tough Los Osos sophomore squad.

Any game that is decided by 4 points is likely to have been decided by small things, and this was indeed the case. We suffered an uncharacteristic lapse in special teams Friday that cost us the game: a punt return for a touchdown and several other kicks that were returned for long yardage, putting our defense in several tight spots. We have been so good for so long on special teams that it was disappointing to suffer the breakdowns we did.

We had several big plays on defense to stop drives: one interception near our own goal line to kill an opening Los Osos drive and a second tipped ball interception that stopped another gave us life. We also stopped Los Osos a few times on 4th down to get the ball back and forced some punts. Despite the 28 points, we are not too upset with our defensive performance. We do, however, need to reinforce our tackling.

Offensively, we were able to drive the ball and score. We only had three possessions in the first half, and they ended with a field goal, a touchdown, and the clock. We scored 10 points in the first half and the other 14 in the second: a fair performance. We also had our first touchdown pass of the season, which was a bright spot.

We told our boys we are proud of them, and so we are: we played well and fought hard for four quarters. Our opponent was a good one and we have nothing to be ashamed of.

I am sure, however, that the boys are a bit tired of listening to me saying they played well when they can look at the scoreboard showing they still lost. We need to turn these good performances into victories that are not just moral ones.

Next week: Foothill League starts against Golden Valley!

When Jim Lovell and his crew managed to return to earth safely despite having not landed on the moon, the Apollo 13 mission was called the "successful failure."

This game may well be called "the victorious defeat."

Your Wildcats found themselves facing a JV team comprised of some very big, very strong, very fast juniors and sophomores--a unit they lost to last year--and never backed down nor gave up.

We were down 20-0 at halftime, and we later would go on to be down 34-0 at one point. Most teams would have folded, given up, asked for a running clock. Not us.

We finally put some drives and big plays together on offense and also managed to stop the Tartans on defense, and started scoring.

34-7.

A stop on defense.

34-14.

A successful onside kick.

34-21.

ANOTHER successful onside kick.

And, alas, that is where the magic ended. We were unable to convert on a fourth down and gave the ball back to Glendora with about a minute to go.

I have never been prouder of this team than I am after this.

Next week: Los Osos!

This, friends, was an ugly, ugly game.

I don't mean it was dirty (though the referees certainly seemed to think so: we were flagged over and over and over by the same two refs, the umpire and the linesman on the Beverly Hills side) or that there was taunting or anything.

I mean it was sloppy.

Our defense continues to play very good football, and although Beverly Hills scored 9 points, none of them came from their offense. So from that perspective, it was a shutout. But our offense was horribly inconsistent and sputtering. Our tailback, Sullano, was a bright spot, as was our flanker, Guzman, but otherwise, we have little to be proud of offensively. Bertuch caught a few and managed to complete our trick play to Eichten, but we remain dangerous to ourselves on offense. It was so bad that eventually I started calling our Jumbo group out and we ran our short-yardage offense over and over. It was safe and it ate time: two things we needed.

Our defense, as I said before, played very well. We weren't on defense too much, since we were trying to win the time of possession game, but even so, the Normans weren't able to do anything of note. They drove down deep and were very, very close to our goal line, but we stood firm and stopped them.

A word on what happened next to those spectators who didn't understand.

We got the ball with a few minutes left in the 4th, up 14-7. After an unsuccessful series (and some MORE penalties) we found ourselves in a 4th and very long on our own 5 yard line. I sent in the punt team with instructions for Eichten, the punter, to take the snap and run around in the end zone for as long as he could, then either take a knee or step out the back of the end zone and voluntarily take the safety.

If you don't know, a safety is worth two points to the opposing team, and in addition, the team that surrendered the safety must kick to their opponent from their own 20 yard line.

With the safety, we were ahead 14-9, with just over a minute to play. But we had set up our weapon. Brady "The Leg" Stuart.

We knew he could kick the ball far. So we were not surprised when he booted the ball from our own 20 all the way to the Beverly Hills 15, where it rolled almost into the end zone. A Norman return man scooped it up and managed to get beyond his 20 before we pinned him down. Beverly Hills now had to go about 75 yards in under a minute. Their drive was ended when Gutierrez intercepted a pass and ran it back to the Beverly Hills 5 with 10 seconds left to play.

We told the kids after the game that this offensive performance would simply not do. It might have been strange for them to hear us so angry and disappointed after a victory, but the truth was, we did not win the game: we simply finished with more points than Beverly Hills.

So mark this one as a W, but make it a sloppy, ugly one, won't you?

Next Week: Glendora!

A pretty thorough loss to the Knights on Friday capped a week of lackluster and imprecise practice for the JV squad and brought us to 1-1 on the year.

On the bright side, despite the score, we mostly played good defense (our offense usually gave the Knights a short field to start with) and had more than a few openings on offense. We also kicked a field goal that was around 30 yards and had some good runs.

The problem was how imprecise we were. Our quarterback was not "on" that day, and it showed with I think four interceptions, the first one of which was returned over sixty yards for a touchdown. Interceptions stopped any drive we attempted to mount, and while we had some degree of success from time to time, we shot ourselves in the foot so much we could barely walk.

We spent the postgame talk proving to the team that a poor week of practice led to this loss. We had best learn this lesson for our next opponent and for the season. It's hard to be philosophical in such a loss, but we need to find the positive here, and we believe that we can teach the kids that preparation and hard work matters.

Next week: Beverly Hills (at WRHS).

In a solid, well-balanced performance to open the season, your West Ranch Wildcats defeated the Lancaster Eagles 28-13 on Friday, September 12th.

The game did not start well for us. We turned the ball over three times in the first quarter alone, once after a substantial gain in the air to our tight end, once on a carry up the middle, and once on a punt that put the ball on our own one-yard line for Lancaster to punch it in. We went behind 7-0 on points we simply HANDED to Lancaster.

But, after that shakedown quarter, we went into overdrive. We got back the score and added another via a combination of runs from Christian Sullano and Trevon Manuel and passes to Josh Guzman and Max Newlin. I don't have my stats with me, but Connor Eichten might have been around 10-for-15 on the day (Sorry, Connor, if it was more than that) and probably had over 100 yards. True, much of that was yards after catch, but we connected often and well.

Defensively, we had two drive-ending interceptions, one by Matt Bruns and the other by Michael Remy. We had some breakdowns in open-field tackling, but we can work on that and improve. We did a fair job of containing the Lancaster run game, with only a few breakdowns there. Overall, we did well stopping the big play and stopping drives.

Aside from the atrocious punt debacle, special teams were outstanding. We kicked off five times, and I believe three of them went into or through the end zone. One of the two returns did not make it past the 25. We made all four conversions and had some excellent kickoff returns.

So, a solid win. Lancaster was not the best team we will face, but they were decent enough. We will need to improve, however, across the board if we wish to defeat our next opponent.

Next week: Notre Dame!