Prefontaine Picks Up Slack, Sparks El Camino

The bubble burst Saturday on La Jolla football team.

The only team of destiny this time of year appears to be El Camino, which scored 21 points in the second half to defeat the Vikings, 28-7, and earn a berth in the San Diego Section 2-A football finals.

El Camino (9-4) is the defending 2-A champion. La Jolla (10-2-1) was staging a remarkable turnaround from a 3-6-1 season in 1989 until it ran into the Avocado League champion Wildcats in front of 3,000 at Torrey Pines High.

El Camino was without standout running back Von Robinson, a 1,000-yard rusher out for the season with a broken hand. So junior quarterback Noel Prefontaine picked up the slack by throwing for three touchdowns.

Prefontaine opened the scoring with a 31-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Esposito on his first attempt with 41 seconds left in the first quarter. Prefontaine threw only eight passes, completing seven of them for 102 yards.

Prefontaine hooked up with Dusty McDonald on scoring strikes of nine and 20 yards to make it 28-0 in the second half. El Camino’s other score came on a 44-yard run by Charles Hicks 31 seconds into the third quarter.

La Jolla’s touchdown came on a 50-yard pass from Brian Hidalgo to Ron Beagle with 3:59 left.

Nobody thought the Wildcats were headed for another trip to San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium this year, especially after they started the season 0-3.

“I don’t know about destiny,” said El Camino Coach Herb Meyer. ‘Obviously, there was a time of year where everybody thought success at El Camino was a thing of the past.”

To see the first half of this game, though, one would guess it was the first game of the season, not a section semifinal contest. Neither team could do much on offense as El Camino trudged to a 7-0 halftime lead.

The Wildcats only did so by virtue of field position. Each of their first four drives started in La Jolla territory. The Wildcats opened their second possession on the Viking 21 after Eric Zadeyan punted weakly out of the back of end zone.

El Camino started the drive with a five-yard procedure penalty, though, and Prefontaine fumbled the ball back to the Vikings five plays later with first and 10 at the 11. That was the first of two fumbles by El Camino inside the La Jolla 15.

La Jolla started its first five drives at its own 20, 2, 14, 11 and 15 and never once got to mid-field as Nick Alford and E.J. Watson, the two Viking running backs who combined for over 2,000 yards going in, had a net minus-eight yards on their first eight carries.

Alford finished with one yard on 11 carries; Watson had 21 yards on 10 carries.