Kocicka Hits for 6 Scores in Hart’s 61-25 Victory

Most coaches would take 61 points any day in the first round of the playoffs. But Hart High Coach Mike Herrington wasn’t exactly singing about it after his Indians routed Pasadena, 61-25, in the first round of the Southern Section Division II playoffs at College of the Canyons Friday night.

“We’ll take it,” he said. “We played super at times. We played poorly at times. We’ll just go on and hope we play error-free ball next week.”

Forgive the Indians (10-1) for any lapses while they dominated the Bulldogs (5-6) for the second time this season. Hart beat Pasadena, 37-8, to open the season and brought the Bulldogs’ season to a close with a school-record-tying six touchdown passes from Mike Kocicka.

Kocicka, who completed 12 of 19 passes for 243 yards, tied the mark shared by Jim Bonds and Davis Delmatoff. He wasn’t perfect, but he got help from Soren Halladay and John McLaughlin (four catches for 134 yards), who made several acrobatic catches.

Sophomore running back Ted Iacenda chipped in with four touchdowns.

After Mark Mahone returned the opening kickoff 25 yards to the Hart 36, Kocicka and McLaughlin connected for a 42-yard pass play on first down.

Kocicka then ran 19 yards up the middle, breaking a tackle by Dan Gomez, to set up a three-yard touchdown run by Iacenda to make it 7-0.

On Hart’s next possession, the Bulldogs blitzed on first down but Kocicka dumped the ball off to Iacenda, who raced 64 yards for a touchdown.

Hart stumbled on its next three drives. Matt Kohl’s 29-yard field goal attempt was partially blocked, the Indians fumbled, then gave it up on downs. But they added touchdowns on their next two drives.

Jeremy Seipel’s interception and 25-yard return set up Kocicka’s 13-yard scoring pass to Halladay, who was outside a defender in the end zone and dragged his feet to stay in bounds.

Hart appeared to have blown the game open after getting the ball on the Pasadena 16 on a snap over the punter’s head. Kocicka’s four-yard scoring pass to Iacenda made it 28-0.

But that’s when Pasadena, which turned the ball over twice and netted 51 yards on its first six possessions, threatened to turn the game around. The Bulldogs made it 28-6 when Lester Towns took a shovel pass from Chris McAlister 59 yards for a touchdown with 25 seconds left in the half.

Then McAlister found Lamont Narcisse wide open on a 52-yard play-action pass for a touchdown after Hart defender Todd Renfro fell, cutting to lead to 28-13.

But the Bulldogs fumbled on first down their next two possessions to give Hart two easy touchdowns.

Halladay recovered the first fumble and Kocicka rewarded him with an 18-yard score on an identical foot-dragging catch. After Seipel recovered a fumble, Iacenda ran 19 yards for his fourth touchdown.

Seipel returned a punt 25 yards to the Bulldog 15 and Mahone grabbed a three-yard scoring pass from Kocicka to make it 48-13. Pasadena responded when McAlister ran 83 yards for a touchdown on a busted play and DuJuan Shamberger grabbed a fumble by backup quarterback Erick Negri and ran 22 yards for a score to make it 48-25.

Kocicka wasted no time restoring order with his sixth scoring pass, a 60-yard play to McLaughlin.