GAME OF THE WEEK: TITANS TAME COUGARS IN 38-13 WIN

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by Christopher Mohr

 

(RANCHO SAN DIEGO) September 25 - Steele Canyon's football team is not happy right now. After the Cougars' 38-13 loss to Eastlake Friday night, head coach Ron Boehmke gathered his players in a circle on the field, and told them in no uncertain terms that this performance was not acceptable. The players knew it, the fans knew it, and after Coach Boehmke's postgame speech, half the people in Blythe knew it too.

 

It's the kind of reaction you would expect after a big loss. Steele Canyon's margin of error was smaller in this game, especially when facing a team as talented on offense as the Titans are.

 

The multiple weapons of Eastlake's offense pose problems for opposing defenses, even when you make few mistakes. Tony Jefferson can run the ball well and demonstrated that fact against the Cougars, rushing 20 times for 111 yards and a touchdown. Chris Fletcher and Daniel Diaz each had rushing and receiving touchdowns for the Titans.

 

Unfortunately for the Cougars, they gave up three turnovers, and Eastlake converted two of those turnovers into touchdowns. Any coach will tell you that each turnover is a potential 14-point turnaround as the team losing the ball deprives themselves of a touchdown while giving their opponent a previously unexpected opportunity to add a touchdown to their tally. In this game, that meant a potential 28-point turnaround against the Cougars, three points greater than the margin of victory by Eastlake.

 

Fletcher's play on the defensive side of the ball set himself for later success on the offensive side of the ball. On Steele Canyon's opening drive, he intercepted a pass from Brad Boehmke (coach's son) and three plays later caught a 30-yard touchdown pass from D'Angelo Barksdale to give the Titans an early lead, 7-0.

 

"I dropped back and saw the safety come over and he was trying to go over to the outside route, so then I saw [Fletcher] open up in the middle and just threw it to him," Barksdale said, describing his read of the play.

 

The Titans extended their first quarter lead to 14-0 on a five-yard touchdown run by Jefferson.

 

Steele Canyon was able to take a page out of Eastlake's book by forcing a turnover and converting it to points. In the second quarter, defensive lineman Joey Alegria intercepted a pass from Barksdale. Just three plays later, Brad Boehmke connected with Cody Simpson on a 27-yard touchdown pass. The point-after attempt failed, but Steele Canyon was back in the game, and went in to the locker room at halftime down 14-6.

 

In spite of three turnovers and six penalties for 65 yards by Eastlake, Alegria's interception was the only turnover that Steele Canyon converted to points. The balance sheet of turnovers that helped versus those that hurt did not show a credit balance in the Cougars' favor.

 

Dan DiazA big play by Diaz in the third quarter added further insult to injury. After catching a short pass, he broke loose and with the help of a couple of nifty moves, scored on a 67-yard touchdown play.

 

"I think the outside linebacker when I was going in motion, he kinda went with me, but I knew I had a little edge on him, I was a little ahead of him and was able to beat him down the sideline," Diaz said about the touchdown reception. "The last guy actually had a good angle on me, but I had to slow it down and make a cutback."

 

On the next drive for Eastlake, Diaz added an eight-yard touchdown run, effectively putting the game out of reach for Steele Canyon.

 

Simpson's three receptions for 45 yards and a touchdown and Alex Perlin's 14 rushes for 61 yards were among the bright spots in an otherwise frustrating night for the Cougars.

 

As far as what a team does to bounce back from a disappointing loss goes, Cougars' offensive lineman Yousif Khoury discussed the work the team performs following the game: "Tomorrow's meetings, film, get back to it Monday morning, first block weight training, just get back into the rhythm," he said as he described the more routine tasks ahead. "We're going to see which blocks we missed, which blocks we should have had, which linebackers we need to cover, stuff like that. We've got to protect the quarterback better."

 

Steele Canyon (1-2) stays at home this week to face Santana, while Eastlake (2-0-2) returns home to face Poway, a team that shares their nickname, in a battle of the Titans.


Christopher Mohr is a freelance writer in the San Diego area. He writes articles for BleacherReport.com and is a huge Chargers, Padres and Detroit Red Wings fan.

Scoring Summary

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Eastlake 14 0 21 3 - 38
Steele Canyon 0 6 0 7 - 13
 

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First Quarter
E - Fletcher 30 pass from Barksdale (Urrutia kick)
E - Jefferson 5 run (Urrutia kick)

 

Second Quarter
SC - Simpson 27 pass from Boehmke (kick failed)

 

Third Quarter
E - Diaz 67 pass from Barksdale (Urrutia kick)
E - Diaz 8 run (Urrutia kick)
E - Fletcher 7 run (Urrutia kick)

 

Fourth Quarter
SC - Watson 1 run (Bruder kick)
E - Pacheco 24 FG
 


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