Prep Review : Quarterbacks Thrown for a Loss

Fate certainly hasn’t been kind to Torrey Pines High School’s football team this fall.

First, star quarterback John Lynch went down on opening night against University of San Diego High School with a broken leg. Two more quarterbacks were then injured.

By the end of Friday’s game at Hemet, Coach Rik Haines had used four different quarterbacks in two games--both losses.

Lynch, a senior, will be out anywhere from 5 to 12 weeks.

“Lynch is only the best player in the city and probably the best quarterback in the state,” Haines said. “But I think we can make the playoffs with or without him. We’re planning on him not coming back. That way, if he does return, it’s a bonus.”

Lynch was hurt in the second quarter against University of San Diego High School after completing 6 of 10 passes for 143 yards and rushing for another 30 yards.

“He probably could have thrown for 500 yards that night,” Haines said. “We probably would have left him in.”

But Haines didn’t have the choice. On the third play of the second quarter, Lynch threw an incomplete pass to avoid taking a safety, then fell wrong.

Losing Lynch alone would have been bad enough. But on the next play, second-team quarterback John Ord twisted a knee. He played the rest of the game but was limping noticeably.

And at Hemet Friday, Preston Bynes started at quarterback but twisted an ankle near the end of the first quarter. Enter Shaw Henderson.

“Once we get them all healthy, we’ll be a great football team,” Haines said.

After Oceanside used a wide-open passing attack to gain a 36-13 halftime lead over perennial Orange County power Mater Dei Thursday, Oceanside Coach Roy Scaffidi turned conservative.

“We did everything we had to do in the first half, and damn near everything worked,” Scaffidi said. “I probably made a mistake at the half. I said, ‘Let’s run some wishbone and control the ball.’ ”

That decision almost cost Oceanside the victory. Mater Dei charged back with 21 fourth-quarter points and just missed a tie when, with 18 seconds remaining, its two-point conversion pass fell incomplete, and Oceanside escaped, 36-34.

In Scaffidi’s defense, it wasn’t a good week leading up to the game. After Oceanside defeated Vista, 24-0, to open the season, John Carroll, the Pirates’ defensive coordinator, resigned for what Scaffidi called “philosophical differences with me.” So Oceanside spent most of last week working on a new defense.

It held Mater Dei to 37 yards in the first half, and each of its first-half scores was set up by Oceanside turnovers. But in the second half, fatigue--which may have contributed to four fumbles by quarterback Jerry Garrett--got the best of Oceanside, which had just 26 players in uniform. Many played both ways. Mater Dei had 86 players dressed for the game.

“It was like ‘The Alamo,’ ” Scaffidi said. “They just kept running people at us. (At the end) we were just trying to hang on. I thought they worked a Catholic miracle on us.”

Notes

The Metro Conference was outscored, 146-35, in the first week of the football season. Carson, ranked No. 2 in the country by USA Today, nearly matched the entire conference’s offensive output when it defeated Sweetwater, 34-0. . . . KUSI (Channel 51) will premier a new half-hour show featuring high school sports Saturday at 10 a.m. called “High School Sports Weekly.” The station plans to broadcast the show year-round.

Jeffrey Parenti contributed to this column.