The Wilson Bruins had their share of chances on Friday night against the Los Alamitos Griffins. In fact, the beginning of the fourth quarter was chalk full of opportunities for the Bruins to claw their way back after falling behind 21-0. But it wasn’t meant to be, and Wilson (2-2) ended up dropping its home opener to Los Al (3-0), 28-14.
The Griffins run-and-shoot offense took a few possessions to get its motor humming, but once quarterback Clark Evans started finding receiver Darryl Jenkins, the Los Al attack was moving like a high performance sports car.
Los Al made the adjustment and attacked the middle of the field between Wilson’s safties, and once they had the Bruin defense on their heels, the screen game opened up. Clark zeroed in on Jenkins and 11 catches, 198 yards and two touchdowns later it was 21-0 Griffins at halftime.
After Los Al missed a 32-yard field goal attempt early in the third quarter, Wilson leaned on its offensive line and running back Brandon Robertson. With two fourth-down conversions and a big pass from Stephen Barrett to Robert Bebek, the Bruins capped a 13-play, 80-yard drive with a 15-yard screen pass for a touchdown from Barrett to Christian Rogers, making it 21-7. The seven-minute drive seemed to wake the home team up again, and the defense forced Los Al into a three-and-out.
On the ensuing punt, Ronnie Yat got some great blocks and brought it all the way back to the Los Al 20-yard line. But one of those blocks was deemed illegal, and the return was all for not. That Wilson drive also ended quickly, but a fake punt caught Los Al off guard when Barrett took the snap and sprinted around the corner. It looked like he picked up the first down when he was shoved out of bounds and into the chain gang, but the ball was placed inches from the marker, and Los Al took over on downs.
Wilson again forced Los Al into a three-and-out and drove the ball all the way down to Griffin 30-yard line. But on third down, Barrett tried to hit Bebek on an out pattern, and the ball was intercepted by Robert Watson. The Wilson sideline screamed for a pass interference call, but they were not awarded one, and Los Al scored when Clark walked in from 2-yards out to effectively end the game.
“Our kids played real hard tonight,” said Wilson coach Mario Morales. “That flag on the punt return really hurt, but that’s not taking anything away from [Los Al]. We need to be more consistent.”