El Camino Romps, Morse Rallies to Football Victories

El Camino High arrived for the Kickoff Classic ready to play, and it showed on the scoreboard.

Immediately.

In a highly anticipated defensive matchup, the Wildcats took advantage of two of Point Loma’s first-quarter fumbles to score a 20-0 upset in front of about 2,000 Saturday night in the first game of the doubleheader at Vista High.

El Camino entered as the defending San Diego Section 2-A champion, as well as the state’s 19th-ranked team in a preseason poll by Cal-High Sports magazine.

The Pointers entered as the state’s fifth-ranked team. But as the game progressed, it looked more and more like like someone had their polls reversed.

“We’re just not ready yet,” Point Loma Coach Bennie Edens said. “They believe too much in what they hear and not enough in what they should be doing.

“We’re going to be good, but it will take a couple of weeks. (El Camino) deserved to win. They were better prepared. Our kids weren’t ready to play.”

On the other sideline, El Camino Coach Herb Meyer was less than impressed with his offense against the Pointers, who allowed an average of only 9.3 points per game last year and returned eight starters.

“Our defense had to save us because we it was a terrible offensive exhibition,” he said.

“Had we played decent on offense we would have had three more touchdowns.”

Probably. Point Loma committed four turnovers, three in the first half; El Camino countered with four also, three in the second half.

But the El Camino defense was superb. Point Loma never went beyond the 50-yard line in the game. The Pointer offense rushed for 27 yards, passed for 28, finished with 55. The offense was penalized for 20 yards.

By contrast, El Camino’s Daniel Esposito--who scored with six seconds left in the game--carried 14 times for 65 yards and Mike Flanagan had 10 for 58. El Camino rushed for 144 yards and Noel Prefontaine completed six of 10 passes for 70 yards.

The El Camino defense recorded seven sacks; Point Loma’s had five. John Moore and Mike Booker had two each for El Camino. Point Loma’s Kau’i Hirakawa also had two.

Point Loma received the opening kickoff, but Prefontaine, the kicker, recovered Alex Gresham’s fumble at the 25-yard line.

Prefontaine passed 13 yards to Herman Gordan to get the ball to the six, then rushed for six yards. A pair of penalties set up Elias Noa’s one-yard touchdown run. Prefontaine added the extra point and El Camino led, 7-0, only 75 seconds into the game.

Then both teams got generous before El Camino took advantage of the Pointers. Point Loma fumbled at its 35, El Camino fumbled at the 30, and Point Loma fumbled at the 20.

Enough, already. Lamont Girton rushed twice for 16 yards and Prefontaine rolled right and passed into the end zone to Gordan. The run failed, but El Camino led, 13-0 with 5:29 remaining in the first quarter.

It remained that way until the fourth quarter. Abdul McCullough sacked the quarterback on a fourth-down play to give El Camino possession at the 31. Seven plays later, Daniel Esposito scored from four yards out. Prefontaine made the PAT attempt with six seconds left in the game.

Esposito carried 14 times for 65 yards, two more than Point Loma’s entire offense totaled.

Morse 45, Rancho Buena Vista 29--Gary Taylor rushed 10 times for 91 yards and three touchdowns to lead Morse to a come-from-behind victory over RBV in front of 6,000.

Morse, ranked fourth in the state, trailed 22-6 at halftime as RBV took advantage of Ragan Jackson scoring runs of 47 and 38 yards. Jackson finished the game with 28 carries for 236 yards. RBV gained 320 yards rushing; Morse had 294.

Taylor scored twice in the first half and again in the second. He carried five times for 52 yards in the second half.

Gary Taylor’s 60-yard score with 8:33 left in the game gave Morse a 33-29 lead. Conan Smith followed two minutes later with a 60-yard score.

“They were very well prepared and I’ll tell you the truth, we weren’t as well prepared as we should have been,” Morse Coach John Shacklett said. “I don’t see another team in our division that’s much stronger than Rancho.”

Jackson had a fumble that led to Morse’s first score, but made up for it with his scoring runs.