HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL : Kerr Rushes Simi Valley to Victory

Tony Kerr was not about to get any 200-pound lineman mad at him.

So, when the 5-foot-9 running back from Simi Valley High was asked why he did so well in the Pioneers’ 21-6 victory over Montclair Prep on Friday night at Simi Valley, Kerr was quick to answer.

“Oh, the line,” said Kerr, insisting that the offensive line was the reason he scored two touchdowns and rushed for 176 yards. “They just blew everyone out. It’s easy to run when they blow everyone out.”

The victory snapped an eight-game Simi Valley losing streak. Coach Dave Murphy agreed that the line deserved much of the credit. “The offensive line looked pretty good tonight,” he said.

At the beginning of the third quarter, Kerr jumped into the line on a quick dive play, popped out the other end and outran the Mounties’ secondary for a 55-yard touchdown that gave Simi Valley (1-1) a 14-3 lead.

“It was just a quick play. It was all in the blocking,” Kerr said modestly.

Not everyone at the game bought Kerr’s easy explanation for his success.

“There’s no reason to get a 50-yard touchdown on a dive,” Montclair Prep Coach Pat Blackburn said. “We had very poor tackling tonight.

“We had a lot of guys who played poorly on defense tonight. We had guys who didn’t perform.”

If the Mounties (1-1) had been able to stop one drive in particular, the result might have been different. Leading, 14-6, at the start of the fourth quarter, Simi Valley went 69 yards on 11 plays for the game-breaking touchdown.

Kerr gained 58 yards on nine carries during the drive, capping it with a three-yard touchdown plunge.

It was the first meeting between the two schools--Simi Valley is a Marmonte League team and Montclair Prep belongs to the Alpha League.

Simi Valley scored only once in the first half, but the Pioneers could have led by more had they not fumbled on three of its first four possessions.

Simi Valley’s first drive began on the Mounties’ 32-yard line. Two plays later, quarterback Larry Jones connected with Gil Carrillo on a screen pass. Carrillo dodged a tackler but when he tried to spin around another near the goal line, he fumbled.

Simi Valley scored on the next series when Jones connected with Dave Gregware for a 24-yard touchdown on the same play Carrillo had botched.

The next two times the Pioneers had the ball, they fumbled. Neither miscue led to a Montclair Prep score, but the first one--a fumble by Gregware--occurred on the 28-yard line and stopped an impressive Simi Valley drive.

“The running backs didn’t have the ball,” Murphy said of the fumbles. “The tendency is to want to run before you have the ball.”

Montclair Prep running back Michael Jones, a 6-1 sophomore who gained 147 yards last week, had 80 yards. Adam Fishman accounted for all of Montclair Prep’s scoring with a 27-yard field goal in the second quarter and a 43-yard field goal in the fourth.