Hart Coaches Took a Step Back With Their Strategy

Indy cars don’t run in reverse and neither should revved-up high school quarterbacks whose engines have been purring for 47 minutes 48 seconds.

Sure, Hart’s Travis Carroll was supposed to continue backpedaling Friday night, out of the end zone, out of the stadium and all the way to the soda shop for a victory pop, but it was backward thinking by his coaches that handed Thousand Oaks a 36-35 victory.

The coaches knew what Carroll was capable of. The senior had completed 21 of 27 passes for 234 yards and three touchdowns and had 68 yards and two touchdowns in 16 carries before the fateful play.

He gained more than 50 yards on quarterback sneaks, a play Thousand Oaks did not stop all night.

On the Indians’ last possession, which began at their 44-yard line with 1 minute 33 seconds to play and Hart holding a six-point lead, Carroll, forward passer and rising star, should have been instructed to do what he does best--tuck the football tightly and run.

FORWARD.

On first down, second down, third down and fourth, if necessary.

By telling him to drop to a knee three times, then on fourth down run 23 yards backward into his end zone and dance around until the clock expired, the coaches were putting a forward thinker into an entirely unfamiliar role.

There was nothing safe about trying for a safety.

Carroll panicked, ran from the end zone back onto the field, and with two seconds on the clock was tackled at the two-yard line. Thousand Oaks scored on the next play, and won the nonleague game, 36-35.

“When I got back into the end zone, I saw everybody from the sidelines waving and yelling different things,” Carroll said. “I wasn’t thinking. I forgot what to do. It didn’t work like it was supposed to.”

Only because his coaches forgot how Carroll works best.

*

A new rule enacted this season enabled Thousand Oaks to get its offense on the field with two seconds to go and run the winning play, a two-yard option run by quarterback Scott McEwan.

After a change of possession, the clock is stopped until the ball is snapped. Previously, the clock began running when the chains and ball were set.

“Until this year we wound the clock when officials were ready,” said Pete Rogalsky, the rules interpreter for the California Interscholastic Federation. “The teams didn’t have to be lined up, and they usually weren’t.”

*

It’s fans like Mike McGrath and Ron Winkler who give Hart one of the finest football traditions in Southern California.

They sat in the top row at College of the Canyons watching Hart battle Thousand Oaks, binoculars in hand, programs on laps, neither with a son on the field but both having a keen interest in Hart’s fortunes.

McGrath, superintendent of the Hart elementary school district, and Winkler, a district trustee and former youth baseball coach of several Hart players, watched with great pleasure as the Indians took a 35-14 lead.

“These guys look great,” McGrath said.

He and Winkler have been attending Indian games for more than a decade. Winkler recalled the 1986 Southern Section champion Hart team, pointing out that his daughter, Kristin, then a Hart cheerleader, dated linebacker Jamie Carroll, brother of current quarterback Travis Carroll.

The men stood for each kickoff, applauded good plays by both teams and seemed to know the background of every Hart player.

Sophomore linebacker Scott Hunt played an especially solid game, and every time he made a tackle a group of about 15 fans sitting a few rows away broke into cheers.

“That’s Scott’s parents and grandparents, his whole family,” Winkler said, smiling. “Boy, are they excited.”

McGrath and Winkler were as stunned as the rest of the more than 4,000 in attendance when Thousand Oaks came back for the unlikely victory. But they maintained the perspective only a longtime fan can cultivate.

“Good thing it wasn’t a playoff game,” Winkler said. “All the boys played hard.”

*

Newbury Park receiver Paul Sanford woke up this morning and asked his mother how the Panthers’ game went against San Marcos.

“Did I start?,” he asked. “Did I catch the ball?”

Lois Sanford answered no and no, but far more important was that her son was coherent. He could not recall anything of Newbury Park’s 38-7 victory after suffering a concussion that knocked him unconscious.

Sanford was hit helmet to helmet early in the fourth quarter as he reached for a pass from quarterback Chris Czernek. He was unconscious for several minutes before coming to with a vengeance.

“He was screaming that he wanted to get up and play, flailing around and kicking his legs so hard the paramedics had to hold him down, but that told me he wasn’t paralyzed,” said Lois Sanford, who ran to the field moments after the play.

Dr. Mel Hayashi, Newbury Park’s team physician, instructed the Sanfords to wake Paul twice during the night. Paul’s 10-year-old brother, David, slept on the floor next to Paul’s bed.

“The emotional impact on everyone else in the family was tough,” Lois said.

Lois and her husband, Guy, have seven children. David plays youth football, Eric is a Newbury Park freshman player and their daughter Chrissy was Newbury Park’s kicker the past two seasons.

“It was weird and horrible but I have a great trust in Dr. Hayashi,” Lois said. “He got Paul calmed down and helped us through the night and this morning.”

*

Reseda responded to the recent death of teammate Eric Hoggatt with a spirited effort, defeating Cleveland, 21-20. But the game was not without a hitch.

Early in the game, Reseda Athletic Director Norman Weiler apparently decided his team’s 14-year-old ballboy was too young to be on the field for a night game.

Weiler shooed the youth away and enlisted a bystander to keep track of footballs. But, hey, it’s a tough job if you’ve never done it.

At one point, a football was left sitting on the field near the Reseda sideline. Between plays, Coach Joel Schaeffer repeatedly screamed at Principal Robert Kladifko, who was behind the bench.

“They let a 14-year-old boy play frosh football but he can’t be a ballboy? You ever heard of that?” Schaeffer said. “Norm’s got to stay out of the rule book.”

*

Feel sorry for Hesperia, Quartz Hill’s next opponent.

The Rebels’ 24-20 loss to Crespi was a game they thought they should have won easily. The last time the Rebels felt that way was after a 13-7 loss to Kennedy in their 1995 opener. The Rebels came back to dismantle Burbank the next week, 49-8.

But those who ran into an angry, 6-foot-2, 235-pound Rebel fullback/defensive lineman named Jacob Waasdorp after the loss would probably rather play for Hesperia than face Waasdorp’s wrath.

“This week is going to be a tough week in practice,” said Waasdorp, a team captain. “We were taking this game too lightly and this week we have to pay--I’ll make sure of that.”

Four second-half fumbles, including two by Waasdorp, were key factors in the defeat.

“Those were just my fault, nobody to blame but me,” Waasdorp said. “But everybody let down in this game, especially after our first score. Our heads got too big.”

Contributing: David Wharton, Peter Yoon.