San Pedro Bottles Up Cleveland in Defensive Battle

Henry Pacheco doesn’t like to bother with technical football lingo when describing his newly implemented defensive scheme. The San Pedro High football coach likes to keep it simple.

“Four-two, split-six, whatever,” Pacheco said. “I just call it ‘Mike’s Defense.’ ”

Mike is first-year defensive coordinator Mike Walsh, and his defense uses two interior linemen who line up in a three-point stance and four other linemen who stand upright, providing six players to pressure the quarterback.

Mike’s Defense swarmed and swallowed the Cleveland offense Thursday night, lifting the Pirates to a 7-0 win at San Pedro.

The Cavaliers (1-1) were held to 105 total yards. Tailback Pat Bryant, who carried on 16 of Cleveland’s 38 plays for 40 yards, was often unable to pop outside and was jammed at the line of scrimmage.

In an attempt to neutralize the San Pedro defensive set, Cleveland Coach Steve Landress frequently employed two tight ends or used an unbalanced line.

“It’s a hard thing to block but they didn’t do anything we hadn’t seen,” he said. “We had too many breakdowns.”

The final breakdown might have been the most painful for Cleveland.

With 1:51 to play, Cleveland took over on downs at its 30. After an illegal-procedure call pushed the ball back to the 25, quarterback Steve Bryant took the snap out of the shotgun. Defensive lineman Brian Peterson penetrated, knocked the ball out of Bryant’s hand and San Pedro’s Carlos Cruz recovered at the 17.

A bright point for Cleveland was its defense. The Cavaliers limited San Pedro (1-3) to 55 yards passing. After Arnie Madrid completed his first three passes, he threw six incomplete and an interception.

Cleveland also held the Pirates to 104 yards rushing.

San Pedro took seven plays to travel 16 yards on a mini-drive midway through the third quarter that stalled at the Cleveland 30. Will Johnson, who recovered a San Pedro fumble in the first half, tipped a pass by Madrid and the ball was intercepted by John McDonald at the 24.

San Pedro’s scoring drive began when the Cavaliers were stopped on fourth and five at midfield.

After two short runs, Madrid hit Vini Bjazevich with a 15-yard pass and three plays later, on third and 10, found Herb Whitaker for 24 yards to the Cleveland 10.

Madrid advanced the ball to the two with a keeper on the following play. Next, Al Schrader pounded in for the touchdown. Bjazevich added the conversion to give San Pedro a 7-0 halftime edge.

The Cavaliers came closest to scoring midway through the second quarter after pinning San Pedro deep in its own territory. A short punt gave Cleveland the ball at the San Pedro 35. Cleveland advanced to the 23 on three short runs.

The drive fizzled on the next play when a Bryant pass was intercepted at the goal line by Whitaker and returned 11 yards.