Photo by Stacy Starr
Millikan knew coming into Friday night that Fountain Valley was going to be tough, and the Barons were indeed too much to handle, giving the Rams their first loss of the year 38-19. Both teams were 3-0 coming into the game, but while Millikan’s wins weren’t against the toughest of competition, Fountain Valley with a big win over Tesoro has already proven they could be a CIF contender. After the game, Millikan Coach Kirk Diego put it simply: “They were better than we were.”
The Rams were shorthanded coming into game—missing starters Paul Slater, Silver Vaifanua, Trevon Trejo—and those losses hurt even more because all three are two-way players. “Three guys, six starters” as coach Diego described them. And their absence was noticeable—the offense struggled, scoring only 6 points in the first half. Even worse than the lacking of scoring was the inability to even move the ball. All told the Rams had 11 drives on the night- two of them resulted in touchdowns, one resulted in an interception and the other eight were Three-and-Outs. The lack of first downs hurt their defense as all 3 first-half Fountain Valley scoring drives came from great field-position, despite having two huge punt returns called back on penalties.
All night Fountain Valley seemed to be bitten by the penalty bug- they ended with 14 penalties, 9 of which were in the first half. Not only did they lose two big returns but they also had a 23-yard touchdown called back. But every time #7, Kyle Middlebrooks, was there to bail them out. The 5’9’ senior would get 85 yards in the first half alone and would end the game with 20 carries for 147 yards. Middlebrooks was also responsible for the kick-return duties and put up big return after big return. Coach Diego had nothing but rave reviews for the Fountain Valley running back after the game: “He’s a good football player. He’s a track guy, and sometimes you get these track guys that are fast, and they lose the football, but he was strong with the ball. I was hoping we would put it on the ground, but he wouldn’t.”
Middlebrooks’ return prowess actually ended up giving Millikan their first big break of the game. Coming out after halftime, down 17-6, the Rams were kicking off. To most observers it looked like Millikan onsided it but Coach Diego clarified that “it wasn’t an onside kick. We were avoiding kicking it to #7, we weren’t going to kick it to #7” however the pooch kick caught Fountain Valley off-guard and Millikan recovered. The offense continued to struggle though and had to punt it away but a nice bounce pinned the Barons back on their own 1. After an incomplete pass, a one-yard run, and another penalty, Fountain Valley faced a third-and-long just outside their end zone. Earlier in the game, Ram defensive back Jerrell Bradford had an opportunity to pick one off but couldn’t bring it in; fortunately for him he got another chance. On that 3rd-and-one, Barons QB Dominic Ragland put one up for grabs and not only did Jerrell ‘doesn’t-miss-twice’ Bradford come down with it but he took it 20 yards for a Pick-6. It was his 3rd interception in 4 games this year.
That score brought the Rams to within 5, but that was as close as they would come. Ragland and Middlebrooks would take over from there. Ragland would consistently make something from nothing, scrambling for two touchdowns- 11 and 15 yards respectively before a huge Middlebrooks punt return would lead to a two-yard score.
This Ram team has some potential, although they showed that they can get dominated at the line of scrimmage. They are going to need to get healthy, and getting Paul Slater back at QB is the first step. Diego would describe the situation: “When Paul got hurt, we struggled to find out where to play people. Alden Darby came in and took the quarterback role and all of a sudden things started to happen… Darby has to be the quarterback, the thing about that is he had 73 receptions a year ago. But without Paul at QB we can’t get the ball to him anyway.” Silver Vaifanua will miss next week’s Moore League opener but the Rams hope that Slater will be back. His presence should not only help the offense but could further improve the Ram secondary, which so far has been their best unit.
Millikan had a very successful non-league season- “I’m happy with 3-1”, Coach Diego admitted. But their Moore League schedule was not friendly- they open with two games on the road (Cabrillo, then Wilson) followed by running the gauntlet of Jordan, Poly, Lakewood, Compton with no bye week until after all their Moore League games are played. But for Millikan, tough losses like Friday nights’ might just be preparing this Rams team to handle whatever the League can throw at them.