USD Settles for Tie After Missing Late Field Goal

A shaky foundation toppled the creation.

The University of San Diego football team built a rousing second-half comeback Saturday afternoon and was poised to wrest a victory from La Verne.

With three seconds remaining and the game tied 21-21, USD was in position for a 22-yard field-goal attempt.

No problem. Almost as easy as a point-after, right?

The kick flew wide to the right.

“Their kicking game has some problems,” said La Verne Coach Rex Huigens, who was relieved to escape with the tie.

Earlier in the game, sophomore kicker Robert Ray had an extra-point kick blocked. On the season, Ray is three for four on PAT kicks and 0 for 4 on field-goal attempts.

On the potential game-winner, Ray said, he simply got nervous.

“It looked like it was going well, but I just pushed it off to the right,” said Ray, who hadn’t kicked since his freshman year in high school.

But USD Coach Brian Fogarty was quick to ease the burden of blame off Ray, who had all of two weeks experience at the position going into this game.

“I don’t blame him,” Fogarty said. “The fact that we were so ineffective in the first half is as much to blame as the kick.”

The faulty foundation: USD’s numbers on offense were dismal in the first half, where the Toreros were four for nine for 40 yards passing and rushed 22 times for 40 yards. Quarterback Michael Bennett, who sat out several plays in the first half because of a sore left shoulder, completed two passes for 16 yards.

For the second consecutive week--USD got off to a slow start in its opener against Cal State Hayward last week--Fogarty was at a loss to explain the offense’s lack of production early on.

“I don’t know why,” he said.

Bennett explained as a case of the jitters.

“We were too scared, too excited in the first half,” he said. “We just couldn’t put a drive together.”

In the first half, USD’s defense and a rash of penalties--six for 77 yards against La Verne--kept the Toreros (1-0-1) within a touchdown’s reach of La Verne (0-0-1).

The Leopards scored with 2:34 left in the first quarter after they drove 97 yards on nine plays and scored on a 36-yard pass play from Willie Reyna to Bill Battin to take a 7-0 lead.

USD and La Verne exchanged failed field-goal attempts, the Toreros from 39 yards out, the Leopards from 52 yards, near the end of the first half to keep the score in check.

On offense, anyway, the Toreros emerged changed men in the second half. The defense, hurt by injuries to three of its key personnel--Neal Weitman, Scott Buccola and Marcus Carter--but still effective, didn’t change much.

USD pulled to 7-6 at 4:57 in the third quarter when Bennett scored from seven yards out. The 11-play, 80-yard drive consumed 5 minutes 55 seconds.

La Verne was forced to punt on its next possession, and the Toreros struck again as the fourth quarter began. After two short rushing gains and a dropped pass, John Lambert found a hole up the middle and picked up 44 yards. Two plays later, Bennett found wide receiver Darrick Morse for the 19-yard touchdown pass and 12-7 lead. Bennett looked ready to throw on the conversion attempt, but found room to run right and scored easily.

A 56-yard return on the ensuing kickoff by Craig Stewart set the stage for La Verne’s Phelan Piestrup to run in from a yard out and tie the score, 14-14, with 12:37 to play.

Three minutes later, Lambert again found running room and ground out 28 yards to get USD on La Verne’s nine-yard line. Bennett capped the 65-yard drive on third-and-goal from the two with a short pass to Scott Steingrebe. Ray’s kick made it 21-14.

The Leopards tied it again, with 2:59 left, on a one-yard leap by Reyna.

On its last drive, USD zeroed in on field-goal range when Jamie Gutierrez made two clutch catches for gains of 19 and 18 yards. Then on second-and-10 from the 16, Michael Henry gained 11 yards to set up Ray’s attempt.

USD held Reyna, the leading passer in NCAA Division III last season, to 194 yards. Last year, Reyna passed for 454 yards. Bennett was nine for 16 for 123 yards and two touchdowns.

Lambert was USD’s leading rusher with 97 yards on seven carries. Steingrebe caught three passes for 49 yards.