Prep Football : Little Dab of Offense Does Capistrano Valley Just Fine, 12-7

This is what happened Friday night in the football game between Capistrano Valley and Westminster high schools:

For about 8 minutes in the third quarter, the respective offenses scored points.

For the other 40 minutes or so, the respective defenses bullied the respective offenses.

The game, played at Westminster, was won by Capistrano Valley, 12-7. And it was won by a team with a sophomore quarterback and a rushing attack of 3 running backs who failed to gain 100 yards among them.

The Cougars gained all of 35 yards in the first half, unable to do anything against a physically larger Westminster team.

“There was no way we could go straight up with those guys,” said Eric Patton, Capistrano Valley coach. “They were just too big for us.”

Things got better real fast for Capistrano Valley, which broke a scoreless tie on Mike Cobb’s 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to start the second half. Cobb, a 5-foot 9-inch, 165-pound defensive back, got the ball at the 15, went right, cut left and then turned up the sideline and was gone.

The conversion kick failed, but considering that Westminster managed only 49 yards of offense in the first half, those 6 points looked like more than enough.

Of course, that’s before Westminster drove 73 yards in 14 plays and scored on a 7-yard pass from quarterback John Shipp to Jim Slagle. Ryan Pence’s conversion kick gave Westminster a 7-6 lead with 5:05 left in the third quarter.

Though Slagle and Shipp combined for the score, the drive was spearheaded by running back Osavale Fiaseu’s. Fiaseu carried the ball 9 times in the drive for 48 yards.

With Shipp substituting for injured starting quarterback Bob Elliott, Westminster rode Fiaseu’s jersey tails throughout the game. The senior carried the ball 35 times for 158 yards. Fiaseu had 17 rushing attempts before another Westminster running back got a carry.

Capistrano Valley came back with a 38-yard kickoff return by Dae Poltl to the Cougar 46. After a 7-yard run by Chi Chi Biehn, sophomore quarterback Tony Solliday dropped back to pass--only to be swarmed by Westminster defenders. One of those defenders grabbed Solliday’s jersey and, as Solliday struggled to get away, ripped the jersey in half.

With half his torso jersey-less, Solliday sprinted to his right--giving new meaning to the naked bootleg--and found receiver Dan Zamora hanging out on the sideline.

Solliday threw to Zamora. Zamora caught the pass, turned and ran untouched for a 47-yard touchdown.

“That was the game right there,” Patton said.

It certainly was, as the defenses went right back to bashing the offenses. From that point, each team entered the other’s territory just once.