Desert-Mountain Conference : Schweer Sparks Woodbridge to 40-0 Triumph

Before Woodbridge High School’s semifinal match against the Desert-Mountain Conference’s reigning champion, Atascadero, the Warriors had their own little quarterback controversy in the works.

Who would start? Junior Fred Schweer, who had completed 63 of 126 passes for 767 yards in his eight starts? Or Derrick Odum, who stepped in for the injured Schweer last week and passed for 220 yards?

Well, they both started. But Schweer was throwing the ball and Odum was catching it. And Atascadero was standing by watching.

Leading his team to a 40-0 rout, Schweer picked apart the Greyhound defense in the first half, throwing three touchdown passes--including a 25-yard bomb to Odum--and running for a touchdown himself.

Woodbridge (12-1) advanced to its first conference championship game next Friday against Chaminade.

Atascadero, which had won three conference championships in the last five years, finished 10-3.

In the first two quarters, Schweer, who only threw one pass in the second half, completed 8 of 12 passes for 153 yards.

Another quarterback eventually did come into the game. But it wasn’t Odum, who caught 5 passes for 72 yards. Sophomore Greg Fisher got in in the fourth quarter to get a little big-game experience.

Not many in the umbrella-covered crowd of 600--including 100 Woodbridge fans--would have predicted such an aerial attack at the start of the game. The opening kickoff sailed up into an icy downpour.

But the elements seemed only to bother Atascadero. The Greyhounds’ option offense, which hadn’t given up the ball in three straight games, turned the ball over six times. And four times the Warriors cashed in.

On the Greyhounds’ first possession, quarterback Knute Welsh fumbled the ball deep in Atascadero territory and Woodbridge’s Danny Seymour recovered on the three-yard line. Two plays later, Schweer scored, giving Woodbridge a 6-0 lead.

Late in the second quarter, a pile of Warriors fell on another Atascadero fumble. The winners drove to within field goal range. On a faked field goal attempt, holder Odum passed to Mike Yurkovich on the three-yard line and two plays later Schweer hit Rios for a one-yard touchdown pass.

That gave Woodbridge a 26-0 halftime advantage. In the time between those two scores, P.A. Emerson and Brent George each recovered fumbles and Schweer threw touchdown passes of 25 yards to Odum and 74 yards to Dax Jordan.

“It just got away from us,” Atascadero Coach Larry Welsh said. “We couldn’t reel it back in.”

On the third play of the third quarter, quarterback Welsh (the coach’s son) fumbled again. And again Seymour recovered, this time returning the ball 40 yards for a touchdown and a 33-0 Woodbridge lead.

The Warriors’ final score was a third quarter, 25-yard run by John Rios.