Katella Takes Advantage of Ocean View Mistakes

In season openers, the jitters, the dropped passes and the occasional penalty are expected. You don’t expect a young team like Ocean View, with a new head coach, to beat a possible contender and veteran team like Katella.

The unexpected nearly happened, but Katella held on to a hard-fought, 14-7, victory over the young Seahawks Friday night.

Katella went ahead to stay at 2:23 of the third quarter, when Francis Johnson rushed in from the one-yard line. Johnson set up his touchdown with a 60-yard run to the goal line one play earlier.

“You expect those occasional miscues,” said Ron Vander Sluis, Ocean View’s coach. “What you don’t want to happen is to have those miscues happen at an inopportune time.”

The last mistake for Ocean View, and possibly most costly, came on a last minute drive. Trailing, 14-7, quarterback Jeff Taylor passed and rushed his team to Katella’s 15-yard line with 36 seconds left.

Following a timeout, Taylor rolled right and was sacked for a two-yard loss. Confused, dazed, and unaware that the Seahawks had no timeouts left, Taylor barely got off another play only to have his final pass knocked down in the end zone.

Katella took a 7-0 lead 90 seconds into the game when John Baldridge passed 29 yards to Charles Crook. Ocean View tied the score at, 7-7, by halftime when Taylor hit Jeremiah Armendariz for a 70-yard touchdown pass.

--RICK CHRISTOPHER