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[Excerpts from a letter to my son]
Hart plays Loyola on Thursday. Hart is overachieving this year so Loyola should be a good test. The rest of the Foothill
league is very mediocre. Canyon is 2-2, all four games were close against decent opponents. Saugus is 0-4 and has had a lot
of injuries and really collapsed (they were picked by many to win the Foothill League). Valencia is 3-1. They lost to Highland
on a last second field goal (a decent Division II team), thrashed Silverado, a new high school with no senior class, then
beat two very weak Division III teams). Burroughs is 3-1 against weak competition and Burbank is, as usual, hopeless.
As of last week, Loyola was ranked 8th in the state and Hart was ranked 18th. Hart was ranked second in the Southern Section
Division II poll. Loyola was second in Division I.
That's the set up, here's the game:
Hart scored first, late in the first quarter on a short run by Harrison. Hart 7-0.
Loyola tied the game early in the second quarter on a 19-yard run. Late in the second quarter, Loyola got stuffed at about
the 35-yard line but had a great kicker who booted a field goal. Loyola 10-7.
About 30 seconds later, David Neill completed a long pass to Jerry Owens who took it 80 yards for the TD. Hart 14-10 at
half.
Late in the third quarter with Hart still leading 14-10, Neill threw an interception (when it was pretty obvious that
he should have chucked it into the stands) and Loyola returned it to about the Hart 25. They scored a couple of plays later.
17-14.
Neill threw another interception and Loyola scored within a few plays again. 24-14.
Neill threw ANOTHER interception. Hart stopped Loyola and the kicker missed a field goal. Hart was playing with a lot
of very inexperience, young linemen (3 or 4 second stringers?) an Neill was getting the daylights knocked out of him on every
play.
Hart put in Kyle Boller at quarterback and moved Neill to wide out. Boller's first pass (which he really ripped) was dropped.
On the second play he was sacked. On the third play he threw the ball about sixty yards (I'm not kidding!) which dropped into
Owens hands at full stride for another 80-yard TD pass. Loyola 24-21 with about 3 minutes left.
Hart tried the onside kick and failed. Loyola moved it down the field. Hart used up all it's time outs. Loyola got a first
down at the 4 with less than a minute to play. Instead of taking a knee, they went for it and scored. 31-21.
Hart almost scored at the end but it ended 31-21.
The Loyola coach described the long plays as "gifts." Geez -- they looked like perfectly executed pass plays
to me.
In the end the problem was the line play. Hart's first stringers are kind of small but decent. They have no depth whatsoever.
Two starters were out. The lines held their own for about two and a half quarters and then Loyola's size and depth started
to show and their running game, which had not been too effective, started to take over.
Next week: Canyon. They beat Palmdale (our last opponent) 24-21. It's gonna be a tough game.
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