Honoring a Fallen Teammate

It was nothing fancy, just a simple run to the left. But Reseda High tailback Richard Jackson turned it into a 21-yard gain and that was enough to get his team, playing Friday night at Cleveland High, excited again about football.

This was Reseda’s first game since their two-way star, Eric Hoggatt, died in his sleep only hours after last Thursday’s season opener. Several of the Regents had spoken at a tearful memorial before the game and they still faced the specter of today’s funeral.

So it took Jackson’s grinding first-quarter run to rouse Reseda in the early going of an emotional 21-20 victory over its their cross-town rival.

Cleveland’s Jared Mills threw a 12-yard scoring pass to Jose Garcia to give the Cavaliers an opportunity to win with 19 seconds to play. But on a two-point conversion attempt, Reseda tackled Emory Holmes short of the goal line.

The game’s first score came several plays after Jackson’s run as quarterback Jamaal Washington threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to Michael Martin.

Both Washington and Martin eulogized their teammate at a ceremony before 1,800 students in the afternoon. Washington had called Hoggatt “the joyfullest person on the campus.” But no one on the team was talking much before Friday night’s game.

“You could not imagine,” said Coach Joel Schaeffer, referring to the long week his team had endured. “I’ve never been through anything like that before.”

Hoggatt’s death also weighed heavily on back judge Jay Christensen--a Reseda player and senior class president in 1970--who officiated his alma mater’s opener last week. Christensen and the other officials were left numb after hearing the news. “The referee for that game broke down in tears,” he said.

On the opposite sideline, Cleveland Coach Joe Santellano sympathized. He was a Chatsworth assistant in 1987 when defensive back DeWayne Lyons suffered a broken neck and was left paralyzed from the waist down.

“I know they feel bad and they’re going to feel bad for a long time,” Santellano said of the Reseda coaches and players. “But I know they’re going to be up for this game.”

The coach’s prediction came true as Washington scrambled 14 yards to put his team in front, 14-0, less than seven minutes into the game. Tight end Amir Pourlak, who also played on the basketball team with Hoggatt, danced up and down the sideline slapping his teammates on the shoulder pads, yelling: “Let’s go. We’ve got to keep it up.”

There were no such emotional pleas from the coaching staff. The coaches focused on calling plays and dealing with Cleveland’s offensive formations. Schaeffer implored his team to concentrate on the basics.

“Just focus,” he screamed. “Don’t think about anything but you and the ball.”

Reseda brought its marching band and a 60-member drill team. They brought a mascot dressed as a lion. The band played “Tequila” and the lion danced while parents and students in the stands sang along loudly. As one parent said, “This team is a family and Eric was their brother. They have to play. They have to pour their hearts out.”