Emotional letdown? Not so much. Seven days after an exhausting overtime playoff win over Servite on the road, the Lancers came home and played their best football of the year, in a complete performance that saw them advancing with a win over the Mission Viejo Diablos, 28-7. So now it’s official: If Poly beats Esperanza tomorrow, we’ll get the Moore League Super Bowl, Part II, as two of the southland’s biggest rivals meet again for the right to play in the CIF championship.
For the first quarter, it looked like Mission Viejo was going to manhandle the Lancers—on the game’s opening drive, Lakewood went three-and-out, losing six yards in the bargain. Their normally impressive offensive line was getting blown up by the Diablo front four, and the entire team looked out of sync—Jerry Stone lost three yards on his first carry, and Jesse Scroggins missed Kevin Anderson downfield, both uncharacteristic plays for the Lancers’ steady hands. Then Mission Viejo got the ball back and took five minutes to drive 60 yards downfield, an impressive and measured march that took them to the goal line—unfortunately for the Diablos, receiver Joey Branker fumbled the ball into the endzone after his catch, giving Lakewood the ball with a touchback. But again, it looked like the Lancers had nothing going, stalling their first two plays before fumbling it back to Mission on their third. At this point the Lakewood D began to stiffen, as Trevor Erno started laying some heavy licks on the Mission receivers, and Talia Chrichton led a full assault from the front four—they ended up sacking highly-touted Mission QB Alan Bridgford five times, hurrying him a dozen more, and breaking up three passes before they crossed the line.
Still, Lakewood’s next drive was another three-and-out, and it didn’t seem like their offense was going to be able to match the defense’s intensity. Until, that is, Jesse Scroggins lined his team up, and noticed a gap in the Mission defense—he made a few adjustments, snapped the ball, and turned to hand it to Jerry Stone, who ran 44 yards into the end zone without so much as a Diablo breath on his jersey. Prior to that point, he had four rushes for one yard—with the touchdown, Lakewood took a 7-0 lead, and never looked back. “Give credit to Jesse,” said Lakewood coach Thadd MacNeal after the game. “That was an audible, not a blocking adjustment—that was all him.” They scored again on their next possession, with a 48-yard touchdown pass from Scroggins to Anderson that was about 40 yards in the air, and as perfect a ball as he’s thrown all year. Mission Viejo threatened on a late first-half drive, but Bridgford hung one up there and a Lancer defender came down with it.
The second half was more of the same, as Bridgford threw an interception on his first attempt, and Lakewood drove down the field to have Jerry Stone punch it in for his second TD, giving them a 21-0 lead. Another Stone TD later in the third made it 28-0. Stone finished with 25 carries for 168 yards and three TDs; Scroggins tossed 10/18 for 185 yards and a TD, completing passes to eight different receivers and keeping the Diablos on their toes.
But 28 points is about what most people expected from the Lakewood offense—what will come as a surprise to many is the play of the defense, especially the secondary, which utterly shut down the Diablos, coming up with three turnovers, all of them at crucial moments. It was those turnovers that allowed the Lancers to hold Mission to seven points, despite the fact that the Diablos only gained 60 yards less than Lakewood (306 to the Lancers’ 377). Those big plays as well as the ferocious tenor of the Red Swarm were what made the difference—Trevor Erno, Talia Chrichton, Aaron Aviles, Jason Utupo, and yes, even Jerry Stone all had helmet-rattling collisions that helped to disrupt the Mission passing attack, whether it was by knocking Bridgford around, or laying the lumber on his receivers so hard that they got alligator arms. The five-plus drops on the evening aren’t the norm for Mission.
Essentially, the Lancers outplayed the Diablos in every phase of the game—their kicker was better than Mission’s, their offense broke the sure-tackling Mission D and put up four TDs, their physical defense beat up the Mission power offense. Hell, their mascot was a better dancer. Face it: it’s possible that nobody in all of the CIF-SS has more momentum on their side than Lakewood. One way or another, they’ll have the home game next week, against either Poly or Esperanza. After the game, coach MacNeal said he didn’t care who they played. Poly is obviously a huge rival, and Esperanza knocked them out of the first round of the playoffs last year. “Either way it’s a huge game for us.” Lancers guard Dylan Kellison and most of the rest of the team said basically the same thing.
But, as people were leaving the field, Trevor Erno couldn’t help himself—he called us over, and called his quarterback over, and together they shouted, “We want Poly!” In the stands after the game a large contingent of Jackrabbits, who were there to scout a potential opponent for next week, stood on the bleachers with their hands raised, in an obvious gesture: “We want Lakewood.” The entire city will have its eyes on Valencia/Placentia tonight to see if Poly can make that dream a reality.
“We want Poly!”