The La Jolla Country Day (LJCD) defense pitched a shutout and a young offense just learning the spread formation lit up the scoreboard as the Torreys defeated the Foothills Christian Knights, 42-0, in a non-league football game last Friday, Sept. 28 at Country Day.
“We showed some flashes,” LJCD coach Jeff Hutzler said.
The Torreys opened the scoring in a flashy way when Derek Hatfield heaved a 68-yard touchdown pass to senior running back Tommy Morris to give LJCD an early 7-0 first quarter lead.
In the second quarter, Hatfield ran one in from 11 yards out. That padded the Country Day cushion to 14-0.
“We’re growing as a team,” Hutzler said. “We keep getting better.”
Later in the second period, the Torreys continued to show improvement.
That’s when junior running back-defensive lineman Doug Rogers returned an interception 42 yards for a touchdown to extend the LJCD advantage to 21-0 heading into the locker room at halftime.
After the intermission, it was more of the same as the Torreys hung their hats on Hatfield. The sophomore quarterback hurled touchdown passes to Morris (31 yards) and Rogers (36 yards) and took another one in, this time from 1 yard out, to seal the victory for LJCD.
In addition to his five touchdowns (three passing, two rushing), Hatfield completed 16-of-23 attempts for 331 yards passing. Morris (two catches, 99 yards, two TDs) and Rogers (two catches, 48 yards, one TD) caught touchdowns from Hatfield, but running backs Mike Salas (four catches, 69 yards) and Connor Grooms (two catches, 22 yards), among other Torreys, also got into the act.
On the defensive side of the ball, LJCD was led by the play of Rogers (two tackles, two sacks, one interception), linebacker Cody Maxwell (10 tackles), linebacker Montell Allen (nine tackles, two sacks), defensive lineman Andy Altman (seven tackles, one sack), linebacker Mark Hannum (four tackles, one sack), defensive lineman John Hansbrough (three tackles, one interception), and defensive back Connor Gibson Gerhart (two tackles, one interception).
With the win, the Torreys improve their record to 2-3. With the loss, Foothills Christian falls to 3-2.
“They (the Knights) play in the Southern League and they’re doing well,” Hutzler said. “They’re actually a pretty good-sized school. But, they’re just beginning to build the football program. Even so, maxpreps.com had predicted that we would lose the game 28-24.”