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Hart started badly to say the least.
The Hart kickoff was
flat and short and ECR got a 48-yard return to the Hart 41. The first ECR offensive play was a 22-yard run to the 19.
ECR got down to the 3 but an illegal procedure penalty pushed them back out to the 8 and an incomplete pass (one of only 3 passing
attempts for ECR for the night) forced a field goal attempt which missed.
Hart had an unimpressive 3 and out with ECR
getting a 17-yard return to the Hart 38. ECR scored on a 6-play drive (all runs) but had the PAT blocked to go
up 6-0.
Hart had another unimpressive 3 and out which became disastrous when the long snap was low and the punter put
a knee down trying to get it. ECR got the ball at the Hart 6 and scored 3 plays later but again missed on the passing
PAT to make it 12-0.
Hart finally got a first down and got rolling, moving down to the ECR 7 but then a fumbled center
snap on fourth down turned the ball over to ECR at the 17.
ECR then went on a 13-play drive (12 runs) and scored to
make it 19-0.
Hart started to show a little more offensive promise, getting down to the ECR 17 but then missing an
FG attempt as the clock expired at halftime.
Hart took the second half kickoff and things went from bad to downright
awful. Hart moved fairly smartly from the 17 to the ECR 45 but then QB C. J. Reyes was blind-sided just as he was releasing
the ball. The ball fluttered into an LB or DL player's hands who returned it about 55 yards for the TD. 26-0.
Hart
got a nice 41-yard run by Reyes on the first play of the next series but then went 3 and out.
The Hart punt was down
to the 4 and ECR -- with a 26 point lead -- got very cautious. For the first time, the Hart defense really stopped them, forcing
a punt. Hart started at the Indian 48. From there, Hart went on a 10-play drive and scored on an 11-yard pass
from Borland to MacArthur. Reyes missed most of the series with what appeared to be very severe leg cramps and maybe
an ankle problem. 26-7 with a minute left in the third.
Then ANOTHER disaster. Another flat short kickoff
that was returned 88 yards for a TD. 33-7 ECR with :56 in the third.
Hart got right back on the horse! MacArthur
returned the kickoff 68 yards to the ECR 32. On the first play from scrimmage, Reyes passed to Borland for 32 yards
and the TD. The PAT missed 33-13 at :42 in the third. (That's 3 TDs in under 30 seconds!)
Hart tried an
unsuccessful onside kieck and ECR started at the 49. They got down to the Hart 24 on the next play. A couple more
penalties backed 'em up. On fourth and long, the QB was sacked and Hart took over on the Hart 38.
At this point
the ECR discipline started to crumble a bit. Reyes passed -- Pass interference for a first down. Pass to Stevens
for 9, run by Stevens for about 9 with a late hit penalty tacked on the end. Then another late hit penalty on Reyes after
he passed. The ball was on the ECR 5 and Borland at QB ran it in for the TD. 33-19 at 9:49 in the fourth.
ECR
was assessed a penalty after the kickoff for an illegal substitution, another for illegal procedure, another for an illegal
substitution, and two more for, I think, illegal procedure to force a punt from the 34. It was a doozy. 64-yards
to the Hart 2. Hart then went on a 16-play, 98-yard drive ending with a 30-yard TD pass from Reyes to Borland to make
it 33-28 with 40 seconds left. Reyes completed 3 long 4th down passes to keep the drive alive.
It looked like
Hart got the onside kick but it was ruled to have touched one of the Hart kids' helmets a little early so ECR got the ball
and a couple knees later it was over.
The Hart QBs finished
at 13 of 36 for 214 yards, 3 TDs and 1 INT. Reyes completed a couple of very long passes downfield that were ruled out
of bounds and had a half dozen drops by some normally sure-handed receivers plus some blown routes. There is reason
to think the passing game will be solid. I note that he threw passes to 7 different receivers on just about every part
of the field including right down the middle.
Stephens had some good little runs and showed his maturity a couple
of times when he got all he could and then insured that he got out of bounds to stop the clock. Reyes had some nice
runs as well and Borland scored a TD on a run from the QB position.
The offense scored 4 times from scrimmage in approximately
12 minutes on drives of 52, 32, 68 and 92 yards. Just gotta start doing it sooner.
The defense sharpened up in
the second half but overall was not too impressive. Too much arm tackling and not enough hitting. Also it seemed
to me that the DBs were really hanging back too much worrying about the pass. ECR is a double wing running team.
Seems to me the DBs ought to have been advancing far more aggressively more often. Given they attempted to pass only
three times during the game, it was a fairly good bet it was a run every time the ball was snapped.
Ultimately, special
teams was the giant bugaboo -- Hart gave up a huge return to open the game, another big punt return that lead to a score and
of course an 88-yard kickoff return. Then there was the faux pas on a punt that gave ECR the ball on the 6 plus a missed
field goal and 2 missed PATs.
Unknown to me at the time, Hart had practiced only once in the
preceding 10 days because of very severe fires in the Angeles National Forest which made the air in the SCV almost unbreathable
and filled the sky with ash. Small wonder that Hart looked so discombobulated for the first three quarters of the game.
Final note -- Blake Borland sort of hit for the cycle to use
a baseball analogy. He had 2 TDs receiving, 1 throwing and 1 running. Shoulda let him try to kick a field goal
and he'd had all the offensive scoring options down.
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