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[Comments in a letter to my son]
Hart played Torrance last week and won fairly handily but in a kind of bizarre game. Hart kicked off and stopped them.
They punted. David Neill, the quarterback, threw an interception to a lineman and was then flattened. The lineman had a straight
shot to the endzone and scored. 7-0 Torrance.
Hart marched down the field and scored on a 40-yard pass from Neill to Jerry Owens. 7-7.
The ensuing kickoff was returned about 90 yards. Fortunately, Hart tackled the returner on the 3. Hart stopped them for
a couple of plays and then Torrance fumbled and Hart recovered (Whew!).
Hart went nowhere and Neill had to punt out of the back of the endzone. He hit it off the side of his foot for a net of
about 7 yards.
Torrance got the ball on the ten. Hart stuffed them; a couple of sacks and a penalty and Torrance was back on about the
30. They went for it on fourth down and Hart took over.
Hart marched down the field and scored. 14-7.
On the next series, Hart's free safety made a great leaping interception and Hart then marched down the field again and
scored. 21-7.
Torrance then made a decent offensive effort and scored. 21-14, Hart.
Hart marched down the field and scored again. 28-14. The Torrance guys flattened the kicker on the extra point so we then
kicked off from their 45-yard line.
The other coaches must have been real dolts. They didn't see the onside kick coming! Think about it -- you're kicking
from the other team's 45; if the ball rolls ten yards and you don't get it, it's at the 35 (which is where it would be if
you kick it out of bounds). Why wouldn't you try an onside kick?
The Hart regular kicking team headed out on the field and the coaches quickly called them back and sent out a "hands"
team. The Torrance coaches still didn't see it coming. Needless to say, Hart got the ball and scored in a couple plays. 35-14
at the half.
Some other dumb stuff: Hart's the free safety had two interceptions when Torrance ran the same play twice. Again, what
dunderheads: Torrance sent out only two receivers, one down the middle and then tried to throw to him. Half the Hart team
was waiting for it. You can throw across the middle when you have four receivers out and you keep the free safety otherwise
occupied. Sending out only two or three receivers doesn't cut it.
The strong safety from the JV team, Matt Fredreichsen, started at OLB. Chris Ciccone, also from the JV team, played one
play in the first half.
Jerry Owens got hurt [broken toe, ouch] and the coaches got a little flustered and just grabbed Chris and shoved him out
on the field. The coaches recovered their composure a bit and realized that they really wanted one of the regulars out there
and put in one of the seniors. All of the other JV kids played at the end of the game (and almost scored).
I think that a freshman may get some time next week. Owens may or may not play next week. Hart plays Palmdale at Palmdale.
We already played them there earlier this year and won 20-0. However, the game was really much closer than that. Palmdale
had an 80-yard touchdown run called back on the first play of the game. Hart then score two touchdowns. The scored remained
13-0 until about a minute left in the game and Hart scored again. Palmdale has a lot more speed than Hart. They just did not
figure out how to use it. They kept trying to pass, which they did ineptly. In some games later in the season, Palmdale put
in a the second string quarterback who is very fast and ran option plays. They finished 8-2, losing only to Hart and Canyon.
If their coach puts in that same quarterback (and I'm not sure he is clever enough to figure that out) Hart will be in for
a game. In addition, it has rained a ton here today which means the field could be a real problem.
In other Foothill play, Canyon lost rather badly to Peninsula, mostly on horrid quarterback play. The guy threw four interceptions,
one was returned for a TD and two others led to a TD within a couple of plays.
Valencia lost to AV. Valencia took a 7-0 lead. Then it was 7-6. Then 14-6. Then AV kicked a field goal just before half
to make it 14-9. AV then scored four touchdowns in the second half. Valencia did nothing. A couple of interesting side notes.
The Valencia ASB director (who has caused so much ill will with Hart) got up just before halftime and announced over the PA
system that there would be a Valencia "victory" dance following the game. All the AV players heard it. What a dolt!
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