Victories for Lynch, Falcons : High school football: Quarterback gets court injunction permitting him to play, and Torrey Pines goes on to upset No. 1 El Camino, 22-3.
On the strength of a Superior Court injunction, Torrey Pines senior quarterback Ryan Lynch played in Friday night’s Avocado League football game against El Camino.
On the strength 211 yards rushing and two touchdowns by junior Kevin Winters, unranked Torrey Pines scored a stunning 22-3 victory over top-ranked El Camino, snapping the Wildcats’ 14-game winning streak.
Lynch’s lawyer won a temporary restraining order Thursday against the California Interscholastic Federation’s San Diego Section, forbidding it from enforcing a one-game suspension.
Lynch drew the suspension for violating an Ethics in Sports bylaw that calls for a one-game suspension for “behavior resulting in ejection of athlete or coach from a contest.” Lynch was ejected from last week’s 32-0 victory over La Jolla for a flagrant foul, kneeing an opponent.
Under the 2-year-old bylaw, which Section Commissioner Kendall Webb said has never been challenged in court, violations of a physical nature are not subject to appeal.
An Oct. 19 court hearing was scheduled.
“If there’s a weakness in our policy, we’ll look for ways to improve it,” Webb said. “But I still feel it has merit. It has reduced violence. We haven’t had anyone ejected more than once. Not only that, it’s cut down on first-time offenses also.”
However, the fact that Lynch challenged the bylaw stirred some controversy.
“The kids I feel sorry for are the ones who didn’t have the parents to go out and hire a lawyer to appeal,” El Camino Coach Herb Meyer said before the game. “As soon as I read the kid’s name in the paper, I knew he had the wherewithal to challenge because of his father.”
Lynch’s father, John, is chief executive officer of Noble Broadcast Group, which includes XTRA (AM 690).
Torrey Pines Coach Ed Burke said Ryan Lynch was “a victim all along” and that John Lynch’s money and high-powered lawyers did not give Torrey Pines preferential treatment.
“Some public defender should have taken (the section) to court before this,” Burke said. “All I’m saying in this is that we had the right to appeal.”
“Any time you use the courts that way, get a lawyer, it’s a slap in society’s face,” La Jolla Coach Dick Huddleston said. “You’re saying the rules sometimes don’t apply. Rules are for everyone but me. . . . It takes the ethics policy and throws it out the window.”
At Friday’s game, John Lynch declined comment on the matter, as did Torrey Pines Principal Simeon Greenstein and Athletic Director Anne Miegs.
John Lynch interrupted a postgame interview with his son to say: “Say nothing about legal matters.”
The court decision did not surprise Meyer, however. “We prepared all week knowing that (Lynch) was going to play,” Meyer said.
But after getting three points on its opening drive, El Camino (3-1) got nothing out of its offense the rest of the game. The Wildcats did not cross midfield again until a minute remained in the game.
Meanwhile, in its first Avocado League game after switching from the Palomar, Torrey Pines (3-1) overcame a shaky start--Lynch fumbled the first snap from center. The Falcons had a late touchdown drive before halftime and three more scoring marches in the second half.
Lynch’s footwork and play-faking abilities were factors in the Falcons’ offense.
Josh Stern scored before half on a one-yard run that was set up by a 35-yard screen pass from Lynch to Joel Brown.
From there, the Torrey Pines offensive line and Winters took over. Winter’s 35-yard touchdown on a left sweep made it 13-3 with 9:35 remaining in the third quarter. Lynch’s 24-yard field goal extended the lead to 16-3 with 2:05 left in the third, and Winters capped the scoring with a 55-yard touchdown run with 48 seconds left in the game on another left sweep.
“Thank god for Kevin Winters,” Burke said.
Torrey Pines piled up 306 yards on the ground and 35 on Lynch’s one completion.
Lynch said the Falcons’ domination of El Camino’s defense, which had allowed only 16 points three games, was easy.
“We watched the films and we knew what we could do,” Lynch said. “We just executed. We knew they were a tough team, but our theme all week was, ‘We believe.’ ”
Meyer said his team didn’t believe in themselves after the first quarter.
“We lost all our enthusiasm and when we lost our enthusiasm, we lost our intensity,” he said. “After the first quarter, their offensive and defensive lines dominated the game.”
Meyer acknowledged that he and his staff were outcoached.
“We had a lot of guys playing who didn’t know what the hell they were doing,” he said. “And that’s the coaches fault.”
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