Muir Finds the Rhythm as Hart Gets the Blues, 28-14

Muir High School Coach Jim Brownfield spent so much of the last week whining about his team’s injuries and lack of size, Hart Coach Rick Scott was offering to pull out a violin and play a sad song for some extra affect.

The feeling was that Muir couldn’t be in as bad of shape as Brownfield was making it sound.

How true.

Muir (13-1), lived up to its No. 1 ranking Friday night at College of the Canyons, tap dancing all over Hart, 28-14, to win the Southern Section’s Coastal Conference championship.

The lead players: Mustang quarterback James Dunn in his first starring role along with a regular--Cary Grant.

Grant, a running back, rushed for only 26 yards, but had 11 catches for 160 yards and a very important touchdown.

Dunn, who spent most of the season handing off to running back Ricky Ervins, completed 19 of 28 pass attempts for 244 yards and three touchdowns.

And while Dunn and Grant were having a field day on offense, the Mustang defense was pouncing all over those behemoths on the Hart offensive line that Brownfield feared so much.

Hart (9-4-1), managed 274 yards in total offense, but much of that came late in the game and after the game’s outcome was obvious.

Hart’s only impressive drive of the game came on its first possession of the second half.

The Indians drove 67 yards on 11 plays to score as they finally managed the right blend of running, passing and Muir penalties.

Tom Bonds completed passes of 14 and 17 yards to Jim Shrout to keep the drive alive, but the key play was on offside call on Muir on a fourth-and-two situation for Hart.

The penalty gave the Indians a first down and Bonds eventually scored on a quarterback sneak from a yard out.

Mitch Spake’s PAT hit the right upright and Hart trailed, 14-6, but Scott was breathing a little easier on the sideline.

“We came out with intensity. We have a great drive, and we’re back in the ballgame,” Scott said.

Wrong.

Before the Muir offense even broke a sweat, it had scored again as Dunn eluded a heavy rush in time to see Cary Grant run past two Hart defenders to haul in a 57-yard touchdown pass.

A typical Mustang drive: 60 yards on three plays for a 21-6 lead.

“That was the killer,” Scott said. “We get our foot in the door and they slam it shut again. We have a mistake in the seconday and we’re back chasing them again.”

And that was one situation that Hart couldn’t afford to be in.

The Indians’ game plan was no secret: ball control and no turnovers would equal victory.

Dunn and Donald Lundy put an early end to those plans.

Dunn picked apart the Indian secondary for 141 yards in the first half, completing 13 of 18 pass attempts.

Dunn ended the half with four straight completions, the last a 10-yard touchdown pass to Lundy with only nine seconds left that capped a five-play, 52-yard march.

Lundy set up the drive by coming up with his second turnover of the game. His recovery of a fumble by Chriq Hite gave Muir the ball on its 48 with 1:36 left in the half.

Muir’s Marcus Robertson caused the fumble by punching the ball out of Hite’s arms after he caught a short swing pass from Bonds.

It was the second time in the half that Robertson and Lundy teamed up to force an Indian turnover.

Earlier in the quarter, Robertson, a defensive end, had tipped a Bonds pass and Lundy intercepted it to kill a Hart drive near midfield.

Muir’s final score of the game came midway through the fourth quarter on a two-yard pass from Dunn to John Hardy.

Hart, which won the Coastal Conference title in 1983, made the score respectable when Bonds ran 14 yards for a touchdown with :54 left in the game and then hit Chris Hite with a pass for a two-point conversion.