Big plays plague Flintridge Prep football in loss
LOS ANGELES — The Flintridge Prep football team was plagued by big-play woes in its nonleague game Saturday against visiting La Jolla Country Day.
The problems for the Rebels began on the first play of the game when the Torreys returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown.
It didn’t get any better after that.
La Jolla Country Day scored on every one of its offensive possessions of the first half, needing just 13 plays from scrimmage to tack on five more touchdowns.
Although Flintridge Prep played better in the second half, the early deficit was just too daunting to overcome, as the Rebels suffered their first loss of the season, 48-26, at Jack Kemp Stadium at Occidental College.
“Just too many big plays that we ended up giving up in that first half,” said Rebels Coach Glen Beattie, whose squad slipped to 1-1. “One of the things that we talked about that we wanted to improve in this game was our tackling, but we didn’t do a very good job of that tonight. They had some pretty fast guys and if you miss the first tackle on a fast guy, well, you’re going to be in a world of hurt, and that’s what happened to us.
“It’s just hard to try to come back after getting so far behind, especially against a team as good as they were.”
Flintridge Prep, which earned a 49-20 win to open its season a week earlier against Mountain Empire, found itself behind right off the bat, as Brennan Goring returned the opening kickoff 92 yards to give La Jolla Country Day (1-1) an early lead.
However, aided by Torreys penalties (131 yards on the night), the Rebels stormed back and scored on their first possession. In a 14-play drive that covered 70 yards, Flintridge Prep scored on a one-yard run up the middle by Kole Hamane (10 carries for 47 yards, four catches for 76 yards) with 4:49 left in the first quarter. When the point-after attempt was blocked, the Rebels trailed, 7-6.
“I was happy with the way that we came back and scored after they returned that kickoff,” Flintridge Prep quarterback Andrew Tsangeos said. “At that point we were right with them.”
But then La Jolla Country Day quarterback Braxton Burmeister went to work. The Torreys scored touchdowns on a 59-yard pass, a 99-yard pass, a 61-yard quarterback scamper, a 15-yard pass and a 32-yard pass. Sandwiched in between was a Flintridge Prep touchdown, a 12-yard quarterback keeper by Tsangeos to get the Rebels to within 14-12 with 11.3 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
The Rebels were also stopped at the one-yard line in the second quarter and turned the ball over on downs. La Jolla Country Day took over possession and scored on one play.
The Torreys enjoyed a 41-12 lead at the half.
“We can’t be giving up the big plays like we did,” Tsangeos said. “We had them backed up at the one-yard line and they score on a 99-yard touchdown play and then we had them fourth and 25 and they go for a big touchdown. Things like those, we just can’t have that happen.”
Tsangeos carried the ball 16 times for 78 yards and two touchdowns. He also completed 10 of 26 passes for 169 yards.
But the University of Arizona-bound Burmeister was the real star of the game. The junior completed 11 of 13 passes for 305 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. In addition, he ran the ball three times for 63 yards and two scores.
Flintridge Prep tallied two touchdowns in the second half, one on a 12-yard keeper by Tsangeos and the other on an eight-yard run by Lukas Hutzler (20 carries for 52 yards).
“At halftime, we told them that we can draw up a lot of the things on the white board, but you guys are just going to have to figure things out for yourselves,” Beattie said. “And I thought they responded pretty well in that second half.”