HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL ROUNDUP : Point Loma’s Easy Victory Gives Kearny a Dose of Ejection, Dejection

For third-ranked Point Loma, it was a football game in which a good team got better.

For seventh-ranked Kearny, it was a total unraveling. First the Komets lost their coach, then they lost their star running back, then they lost the game.

The Pointers put the squeeze on seventh-ranked Kearny in an emotional 42-7 nonleague victory Friday that Point Loma Coach Bennie Edens insisted was “only a game.”

Try to tell that to the previously undefeated Kearny players, whose coach, Willie Matson, was relegated to watching from the gravel track with less then four minutes left in the second quarter. Matson was ejected from the game after back-to-back unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, stemming from a play that Matson thought was a late hit. His ejection came after the county’s top scorer, James Curtis, injured his wrist and left the game.

“I’m not going to bad-mouth anyone,” said Matson, shaken. “But I’ve never had a penalty in a game in all the years (16) I’ve coached in high school. I don’t want anyone to think this was a result of frustration on my part. I wasn’t frustrated; I was concerned about the safety of my players.”

Edens said his side didn’t think it was a late hit and that Matson simply saw the play from a different angle. “It was a very hard hit,” he said, “but clearly, it was within range of when a guy can hit another guy.”

The penalties in question came with Kearny (7-1) trailing 14-0 and gave the Pointers (7-1) prime field position to extend their lead to 28-0. Point Loma halfback Alex Gresham (18 carries, 121 yards, three touchdowns) had scored on a 14-yard run, Rantie Harper (eight carries, 69 yards, two touchdowns) trotted in from three yards and Gresham echoed that, running in from three yards out for another.

“We just started out poorly,” Matson said. “I feel sorry for the (players), but they didn’t quit. I hated to be a distraction for them. It’s an embarrassing thing to happen.”

Edens suggested the ejection and a sideline fight toward the end of regulation could be traced to a team with no losses and that had given up only 74 points before Friday. “It’s easy to get emotional, especially when you’re unbeaten,” he said.

Point Loma scored 14 points in the first, second and fourth quarters and allowed Kearny’s lone touchdown in the third, when Kenny Junious scored on a seven-yard pass from Sam Page.

Pointer Shaunta Baker, who finished with 87 yards on five carries, gained 68 of those scoring on a fake reverse with 3:21 remaining.

Defensive end La’Roi Glover contributed two sacks and five tackles as Point Loma held Kearny to 138 yards. Point Loma finished with 311 yards.