Ankle Doesn’t Slow Morse’s Taylor

Opposing defenses have been trying to figure out how to stop Morse running back Gary Taylor. Needless to say, they haven’t had much success. Taylor rushed for 167 yards against Lincoln Saturday to become the county’s first 1,000-yard back this season. Perhaps, what everyone should be trying to figure out is how he has averaged 13.2 yards a carry with a bad ankle.

Taylor, a 6-foot, 165-pound junior who has 1,054 yards on 80 carries in five games, developed a turf toe before the season started, then sprained his ankle making a cutback against Sweetwater two weeks ago. He re-sprained his right ankle during practice last week and had to sit out a day. Yet he averages 210.8 yards a game.

“He’s had a bad ankle, but it hasn’t affected his performance,” said Morse coach John Shacklett, who downplays individual accomplishments but concedes that reaching 1,000 yards this early is “something special.”

“I think about 2,000 now and again,” Taylor said. “But I just think about winning; 2,000 will come along with the winning.”

Call it a combination of hard luck and untimely scheduling that causes Vista’s football team to be 0-5 this season.

First the hard luck: Vista has dropped three of those five games by one point. It opened the season with a 17-16 loss to Carlsbad, then lost, 15-14, to Chula Vista the following week. In its fourth game, Vista fell to Mt. Carmel, 7-6.

Now the untimely scheduling: a 57-14 loss to Morse in Week 3, and a 58-19 rout at the hands of Rancho Buena Vista Friday.

Friday was the night for shutouts in county football. There were a total of eight shutouts, four by Top 10 teams. No. 2 Mira Mesa, No. 4 Helix, No. 7 Kearny and No. 8 Sweetwater combined to outscore opponents 123-0. Helix’s 33-0 victory was over No. 5 Grossmont. The biggest margin was La Jolla Country Day’s 48-0 victory over Parker. The smallest, St. Augustine defeated San Diego, 8-0.

The El Cajon Valley (4-1) football team avenged 15 years of losses to Granite Hills (2-3) Friday by shutting out the Eagles, 19-0. The last time the Braves defeated Granite Hills was in 1974 with a 31-7 victory.

That year, El Cajon Valley went 8-1-1 and Granite Hills finished 3-6, its worst season.

San Diego (2-3) has been shutout three times this season, but outscored just 13-0 in those losses. After opening the season by defeating Marian, 8-6, and then Clairemont, 28-12. The Cavers have been shut out by their next three opponents: Mission Bay, 3-0; Coronado, 2-0; and St. Augustine, 8-0.

Houston Astro pitcher Randy Hennis, a 1984 Patrick Henry graduate, had a no-hitter through five innings in his first major-league start last Wednesday.

Dana Haddad contributed to this report.