Garden Grove League : Zeno Unimpressed With La Quinta Win

La Quinta High School Coach Joe Zeno should have been a happy man Friday night.

His Aztecs had just defeated Santiago, 28-21, to improve their league record to 5-0 and assure themselves the Garden Grove League’s No. 1 seeding in the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

The team did all this without quarterback Eric Zeno, who injured an ankle early in the season, and first-team running back Bart Recktenwald, who did not start and only played on special teams.

But Zeno had few compliments for his team after the game.

“I was not pleased with the effort,” Zeno said. “I don’t think we got after them very well tonight.”

Even the performance of senior tailback Kevin Rice, who ran for 129 yards on 19 carries and scored three touchdowns, did not impress Zeno.

“I expect that kind of performance from Kevin,” Zeno said. “He is capable of doing it every week. To be honest, I have been very disappointed in our backs this year.”

Recktenwald did not start because of a hamstring injury, Zeno said. But he was healthy enough to play on the special teams, and early in the fourth quarter, he returned a punt 78 yards for a touchdown and a 21-7 La Quinta alead.

Santiago scored on the last play of the game to make the final score closer than it should have been.

Complementing the impressive rushing of Rice was the passing of junior quarterback Derek Debbs. He was never forced to throw the ball under pressure and completed 7 of 9 passes for 97 yards.

Santiago quarterback Rick Burns was not so fortunate. With his team down, 21-7, late in the third quarter, Burns was passing on nearly every down. The Aztec defense took advantage of the situation and repeatedly blitzed Burns.

Burns was sacked six times for minus 38 yards. He also threw three interceptions, all in the first half.

For the night, Burns completed 5 of 18 passes for 118 yards.

“I can’t break it down right now,” Santiago Coach Fred DiPalma said. “We were missing a lot of blocking assignments and Rick seemed to only have about two seconds to throw.”

The second of Burns’ interceptions led to the first score of the game for La Quinta. Defensive back Scott Armstrong moved in front of a Santiago receiver and intercepted the pass near the Aztec 10. His return to midfield set up an eight-play drive that ended on a four-yard scoring run by Rice.

Santiago is 2-2 and 7-2 after winning its first six games of the season.