Special teams play sinks Bellarmine-Jefferson football

LOS ANGELES — Despite another lopsided final score, Bellarmine-Jefferson High team made significant progress and noticeable strides in the right direction, on offense and defense, Friday night at Ribet Academy in a nonleague eight-man football game.

Special teams, however, is what did in the Guards, as they allowed five returns for touchdowns in a 56-14 loss against the host Fighting Frogs .

Ribet Academy’s Daniel Keshishyan scored on four of the returns — two from kickoffs, including the game’s opening kick, which quickly set the tone, and two on Bell-Jeff punts. In all, the Guards gave up 36 points on special teams.

Positives were aplenty for the Guards, though, as the offense orchestrated by quarterback David Van Dyke and heavily dependent on the running game led by Cristian Posis, executed plays from sweeps to reverses and looked overall much improved from last week’s loss to Westmark.

Before the contest with Ribet Academy, Bell-Jeff head Coach Fred Martinez said he “forced the IQ up” and that it would be evident throughout the game. After the game, he said the IQ went from a zero to a three, with more confidence it was only going to increase.

“We’re able to call plays with signals, whereas before we were putting in time just getting a play in, so the sequence is there,” said Martinez, who also serves as the school’s athletic director. “The dynamic has changed — they’re understanding the game and it’s setting it. The concept what we’re teaching is being accepted and we know it’s going to be increments of success.”

Posis led the Guards (0-3) with 78 yards in 15 carries, including a 48-yard score early in the third quarter. The senior has four touchdowns on the season. Nick Alejo, who scored the other touchdown for the Guards, had 64 yards in seven carries. He put the Guards on the scoreboard with 53-yard touchdown on a run straight up the middle.

Van Dyke and Micah Gonzales combined for 41 rushing yards. Van Dyke also made his presence felt on defense, as he intercepted a pass on the ensuing possession after Posis’ touchdown.

Bell-Jeff’s defense played well, but Ribet Academy needed to run just 18 offensive plays, largely because its special teams kept them off the field. The Fighting Frogs managed just 37 yards of total offense.

“Forty-two points,” said Martinez, whose team gave up a fumble that went for a touchdown on the first play of the second half. “Take those away and it’s a 14-14 ball game.”

Daniel Lopez accounted for the other return touchdown, as he took a punt on Bell-Jeff’s first offensive possession of the game and gave the Fighting Frogs a 14-0 lead. Ribet Academy’s offense did not step on the field until late in the first quarter and led, 50-6, going into halftime, culminating a 24-minute frame in which it ran 10 plays.

Aside from the 53-yard run from Alejo and the 48-yard dash from Posis, Bell-Jeff struggled to move the ball, but Martinez and his coaching staff was pleased with the flow, consistency and overall look of the offense.

Martinez said special teams is the next progression as he continues rebuilding a program that has played in three varsity games since 2013 and has not won a game since 2012. Last week, the Guards finished a complete game for the first time in more than two years.

The Guards will not play again until Oct. 3 when they face La Verne Lutheran.

“The scoreboard doesn’t know it but we are in a development process and we are achieving our goals,” said Martinez, who has seen his squad increase its point total in each of the three games. “We were competitive against a stronger team and that’s something to be excited about.”