Empire League : Just Call Pacifica ‘Shutout’

Another Friday night, another Empire League game, another shutout for Pacifica High School. It’s all in a good night’s work for the members of the Mariner defense.

Touchdowns? Not where the Mariners play. Try another stadium.

In fact, the Mariners’ distaste for that form of scoring even spread as far as their own offense at Bradford Stadium. But Pacifica (3-0, 4-2) managed to get by without having to witness any touchdowns, beating Esperanza, 3-0, for a little variety.

Pacifica’s victims the past two weeks were Katella (35-0) and Loara (17-0). Friday’s shutout of the Aztecs (1-2, 1-5) ran the Mariner streak to three-in-a-row, the first such string of scoreless games in school history.

Nobody enters a game against the Aztecs, even this year’s hard-luck team, with much hope of preventing them from scoring.

But, what the heck. There’s no harm in dreaming . . . at least not with the likes of defensive tackles Jason Brusuelas (6-2, 245) and Robert Joubert (6-2, 225) to back it up. After the fact, Mariner Coach Bill Craven admitted that somebody had pulled out the record book this week for a casual check on team history . . . not to be cocky or anything, but just in case the situation happened to arise.

“We’ve never done it before,” a smiling Craven said of the trio of consecutive shutouts. That includes the years Pacifica spent terrorizing the weaker Garden Grove League, which bid Pacifica a fond adieu in 1981. “I would have been happier if we could have gotten more than three points ourselves, though.”

But then, who’s counting? A lot of very respectable water polo teams out there would love to beat Esperanza, 3-0. Pacifica got the only scoring of the game out of the way when Keith Greene kicked a 38-yard field goal with 13 seconds left in the second quarter.

For the Aztecs, this was just another in a string of so-near-and-yet-so-far games that simply go down in the book as losses.

“I’ve never been associated with a team that has had the misfortune this team’s had. But we’re just going to have to learn to live with it,” said Aztec Coach Pete Yoder, whose teams have been perennial CIF Southern Section playoff contenders.

“All the games we’ve lost were so close. We could have won any of them. But we’ve been playing against solid, aggressive football teams . . . This was another tight game. If we hadn’t turned the ball over, we probably would have won.”

No team coached by Yoder in his decade at Esperanza has ever gotten off to a 1-5 start. The only team to do worse was the pre-Yoder 1974 team, which went 0-8-1, back when the school was new.

Oddly, it was the Aztecs’ usual forte that failed them against Pacifica. Since all teams find it difficult to rush against Pacifica’s formidable line, it was supposed to be up to the Aztecs’ good passing game to pose the primary threat. But Greg Beckman, the league’s top quarterback as a junior last season and its No. 2 passer this year, was also thwarted by the Mariner defense. Beckman completed six of 12 passes for only 52 yards, and most importantly, gave up two interceptions.

The most costly came with five minutes left in the game when Esperanza had possession with a first-and-10 at its own 36-yard-line. Beckman’s pass went to Pacifica defensive back Dan Blake, who ran it back 30 yards to ruin any hope of an Aztec comeback.

In other action:

Loara 3, El Dorado 0--Wade Clester’s 22-yard field goal with 2:10 to play broke a scoreless tie and gave the Saxons a homecoming victory at Glover Stadium.

The victory snapped the Saxons’ two-game losing streak in the Empire League and knocked El Dorado (2-1, 4-2) out of a share of the league lead.

Loara (1-2, 4-2) dominated the second half after being held to just 29 yards in total offense in the opening half. Clester completed 5 of 6 passes in Loara’s game-winning drive.

A 15-yard Clester pass gave Loara a first and goal at El Dorado’s nine-yard line. After three plays gained just five yards, Clester kicked his field goal out of Mike Golia’s hold.