Dialing it down

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Emotions ran high in the San Gabriel Valley League opener between Dominguez and Gahr on Friday night, especially once Maurice Simmons, the Dons’ standout senior linebacker, broke his left leg early in the game.

‘It added to the intensity,’ Dominguez quarterback Robert Bragg said. ‘It was real intense at the beginning of the game. There was a lot of talking going on before the game, and when that happened, it just made us play harder. It added another spark.’

Dominguez senior running back Davion Biddle, junior running back Marcus Darden and senior receiver Manoah Wesson each scored twice for the Dons (4-2, 1-0), ranked fourth in the Southern Section Western Division coaches’ poll and No. 17 in the Southland by The Times.

After Simmons was rolled off the field on a stretcher and taken away in an ambulance, his younger brother, junior linebacker Marquis Simmons, was inspired to play perhaps his best game of the season, pursuing Gahr quarterback Corey Nielsen relentlessly and generally causing havoc in the Gladiators’ backfield all night.

The rest of the Dons followed suit, and both teams engaged in hard hitting and trash talking that led to plenty of penalties and several shoving matches between opposing players.

As soon as things heated up midway through the first quarter, vigilant Dominguez school officials locked an open gate that led from the visitors’ bleachers to the field, and coaches clamped down on players who seemed about to lose their cool and cautioned them -- loudly and commandingly -- to step away from any escalating encounter.

Senior lineman Anthony Fields, for example, was ordered off the field by a coach in the fourth quarter after he had taken issue with some rough play and a resulting penalty. And game officials broke up several brief, sporadic scuffles throughout.

It was nice to see Dominguez handle things well, turning down the heat of a hard-fought, emotional game with authority but without being unnecessarily paranoid or overbearing.

In fact, this game was among the most enjoyable of the season for me -- time spent in traffic, a lack of rosters or programs, and the 49-0 rout by the Dons notwithstanding.

- Lauren Peterson