The La Jolla High School football team was unable to extend its two-game winning streak when it dropped a 37-12 decision at Mission Bay on Nov. 5. The Vikings had been riding hot with consecutive wins over Hoover and Serra before the loss to the Buccaneers. Mission Bay (2-7, 2-2 Western League) got on the board first. Its talented quarterback, Nate Long, took a snap and bolted up the middle straight to the end zone untouched from 22 yards out with 9:36 left in the second quarter for a 7-0 lead. La Jolla (2-7, 2-2) answered back with 3:28 left in the half when quarterback Bobby Schuman used a well-executed play-action pass to fool the Bucs defense and find wide receiver Bobby Hill all alone. Hill grabbed the long pass, zigzagged across the field and crossed the pylon just before getting tackled for a 74-yard touchdown. “We’ve been running that up the middle pass all year and it’s been working a lot when I look off the DBs,” Schuman said. “I have really good receivers that get open and my line gave me a lot of time today.” The Vikings missed the ensuing extra point and went into the half down 7-6. The second half belonged to host Mission Bay and its athletic quarterback. The senior ran for three scores and threw for another as the Bucs pulled away. The lone bright spot for La Jolla came in the fourth quarter when Schuman rolled out to his right and found Billy Walters moving across the middle for a touchdown. “I knew that I had to get outside my man because we had to get that touchdown,” Walters said. “I found the quarterback’s eyes just like coach taught me and I just went up for that ball.” As if school and the end of the season aren’t hard enough to deal with, the Vikings also had to play on without assistant coach Luis Moya, who passed away unexpectedly Oct. 29. The staff and team have valiantly come together and dedicated their season to the coach who many in the community came to know and respect. “That was tragic for us, he was a big part of our program,” head coach Rey Hernandez said. “It hurt but we’ve got to move on. I thought the kids handled it well last week.” The beloved coach may not be on the sidelines anymore but he remains in the players and coaches’ hearts. “The loss of coach Moya is still fresh, you know. It hurts,” an emotional Walters said. “But we’ve just got to fight, he’s still with us.” La Jolla finishes up its regular season against the top team in the Western League when it hosts Madison (8-1, 4-0) on Friday, Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m. “We can spoil Madison’s chance at winning league and we can still make the playoffs if we beat them,” Shuman said.
