The Mission Bay Buccaneers (5-2-1, 2-1-1 in the Western League) spoiled La Jolla’s homecoming, defeating the Vikings (4-3, 1-2) 16-8 in a rivalry game last Friday, Oct. 19.
“We stepped up big-time,” Mission Bay coach Willie Matson said. “I was leery of this game. La Jolla has been playing so well and this being their homecoming had to give them a little extra incentive. We always seem to play each other tough no matter what.”
“They (the Buccaneers) played well on both sides of the ball, especially up front,” Viking coach Dave Ponsford said. “They kind of handled us and pushed us around.”
In the first quarter, Mission Bay senior kicker Carlos Sanchez pushed a 36-yard field goal through the uprights to give the Buccaneers an early 3-0 lead.
“I don’t think this was our best game,” Ponsford said. “There were some things we could’ve done better. I’m not taking a darned thing away from Mission Bay, though. They came into our house and beat us fair and square.”
“La Jolla has a good team this year,” Matson said. “They’re a fine team and a complete team. I have a lot of respect for their coaching staff. I was hoping we would come out and play with intensity from the get-go.”
Buccaneer senior quarterback Evan Taylor showed his passion for the game when he called his own number from one yard away in the second quarter to extend the Mission Bay bulge to 10-0.
“Our running backs came close to breaking off a big run in the first half,” Ponsford said. “We were a hair away on several plays.”
Because they couldn’t quite strike gold with a big gain for yardage, the Vikings had to settle for being down by only ten points as the two battling ball clubs headed off to their respective locker rooms at halftime.
“We just have to hold our blocks a little longer,” Ponsford said. “But they’re a good athletic team.”
After the intermission, the Buccaneers made an athletic play on a 10-yard mad dash to the end zone for a touchdown by junior running back Sam Metu (14 carries, 103 yards). That put Mission Bay up by a margin of 17-0 in the third quarter.
“I’d like to hopefully see us play them again somewhere down the road in the playoffs,” Ponsford said. “They played awfully well and deserved to win tonight. Maybe it would’ve been a different game if we could’ve played a little bit better.”
La Jolla did play better in the fourth quarter as senior running back Jerrell Agnew hit pay dirt when he ripped off a 53-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit to 16-8.
“We keyed on the main plays they were running,” Matson said. “Through good coaching, they ran their sweeps effectively in the first half. So that forced us to get out of some of the things we wanted to do defensively. Trying to stop those main plays led to the big run.
“We had him cornered a couple of times,” Matson said of Agnew’s run. “He made a move and he was gone.”
Unfortunately for the Vikings, that was as close as they would get.
“We’ve been playing better in the fourth quarter,” Ponsford said. “This time, we took too long to get going. We needed to make things happen a little earlier. To our credit, we fought hard and didn’t give in.”
Sophomore Dillon Baxter had eight carries for 83 yards for the Buccaneers.