Los Alamitos’ Riley Doesn’t Disappoint

Bernard Riley, who has committed to play at USC, faced a difficult task when the high school football season began in September.

Before he played a down, Riley had been singled out as perhaps the best overall lineman in the county, as well as one of the top prospects in the nation.

Now all he needed to do was prove it.

Riley did just that, enabling Los Alamitos to win the Sunset League title and rack up 12 consecutive victories before a disappointing 33-6 loss Dec. 5 to Mater Dei in the Southern Section Division I semifinals. For his efforts this season, Riley has been named The Times Orange County lineman of the year.

Just how valuable was the 6-foot-3, 303-pound defensive tackle? Barely three games into the season, Riley, along with 6-3, 301-pound defensive tackle Sagan Atuatasi, was told by Coach John Barnes that it was also necessary for both to play at offensive guard, a position Riley wasn’t all that familiar with.

Riley called the experience, “fun.”

“I knew the offense and he needed us to play it,” Riley said. “It was supposed to be on an as-needed basis. We needed to get more beef in there.”

Indeed, Riley brought the beef. He can bench press 405 pounds and runs the 40-yard dash in 4.9 seconds. He led the team in sacks with nine, four more than he had as a scrawny 295-pound junior.

But it was, perhaps, the intangible things that Riley brought to the Griffins that made him such a standout.

“He’s a great leader,” said teammate Keenan Howry, a wide receiver. “He was very vocal. He was one of our four captains and he would rally us at practice with very emotional speeches.”

Comparatively, Riley’s defensive statistics weren’t that exceptional this season and there’s a reason. He drew so much attention from opposing offensive linemen that he was often double- and triple-teamed.

“I know my stats were down, except for sacks, this year,” he said. “A lot of times they would concentrate on me and Sagan would make the tackles. As long as we had people making plays, we were OK.”

Even with all that attention Riley, who was named to four preseason All-American teams, was a handful. He had 49 unassisted tackles--19 behind the line of scrimmage. He broke up six passes, recovered two fumbles and caused three more.

Esperanza offensive lineman George Mares, a first-team all-county selection, said the Aztecs’ game plan was simple when it came to playing against Riley and Atuatasi: Do what you can to get the running back past them.

“We tried to get the two of them out of the way. We wanted to get the running backs past them quickly and to the linebackers,” Mares said.

That wasn’t easy. Riley assisted on 45 tackles and on 19 occasions he was the first player to hit the opposing running back, most times behind the line of scrimmage.

“He was a big force up front for us,” said Howry, who also played defensive back. “He and Sagan gave us strength up the middle. Most teams couldn’t run up the middle on us. I think most of the yardage that came against us on the ground came around the ends.”

Riley assessed his season in positive terms, though he said the loss to Mater Dei was frustrating.

“We had a good season, but we didn’t go as far as we wanted,” he said. “We played all games tough, particularly in league, and our defense was pretty solid.

“But we didn’t meet our expectations and we just have to live with that.”