Boultin Bruises Kennedy, La Quinta Wins
Billy Boultin made up for lost time Thursday night. The question is: was it in time to salvage La Quinta’s season?
With their playoff chances dwindling, the Aztecs kept hope alive with a 24-15 Garden Grove League victory over Kennedy at Bolsa Grande High School. Much of the credit goes to Boultin, a senior running back who had missed six weeks with a chipped vertebra.
Boultin, a 5-foot-10, 210-pound wide body, was a force, finishing with 133 yards and two touchdowns in only his second game back. Alternating between fullback and tailback, he carried 25 times, shedding defenders left and right.
On one play, the ball momentarily popped loose from Boultin. Without breaking stride, he grabbed it out of midair with would-be tacklers hanging onto each arm, then gained five more yards .
Such thug-running was what Coach Roger Takahashi had envisioned when the season began. However, Boultin was injured in the first game and the running game struggled afterward.
“We figured he would be our man,” Takahashi said. “It would have made a little difference if we’d had Billy all season.”
Boultin scored on a one-yard run in the first quarter and a four-yard run in the third quarter, as the Aztecs built a 14-0 lead.
The senior running back was the reason the Aztecs could keep the ball away from Kennedy (2-6, 1-4). The Fighting Irish had only 46 total yards at halftime and ran only two plays in the third quarter, one of which was a one-yard touchdown run by Ray Mobley which cut La Quinta’s lead to 14-7.
But the Aztecs went on a 73-yard, 12-play drive that took 5 minutes 53 seconds off the clock and took away whatever momentum the Fighting Irish had. Boultin carried the ball six times for 29 yards on the drive, which ended in a 18-yard field goal by David Matlock.
“He’s (Boultin) a load to bring down and we didn’t do a good job tackling,” Kennedy Coach Mitch Olson said.
With the victory, the Aztecs (3-5, 2-3) maintained their hopes--or delusions--of gaining a wild-card spot in the playoffs.
La Quinta, the defending league champion, already has lost to the league’s top three teams. Two more victories and a little good fortune, and the Aztecs might, just might, extend their season.
