“The football is the most precious thing out there,” Millikan Coach Kirk Diego said after Friday’s game. After watching Millikan (2-2) roll the Downey Vikings (1-2) 37-14, you wouldn’t have known it: the Rams and Vikings combined for 13 fumbles on the night, with eight of them resulting in turnovers. Millikan had four on one drive—a touchdown-scoring effort that sealed the game for them. The insanity of those ten plays summed up the wild contest—Millikan fumbled the kickoff, and recovered. Five plays later, Rams QB Jake Holtz connected with the ascendant junior Alden Darby on a twelve-yard pass…that Darby fumbled out of bounds. Then, just seven yards from the end zone, Millikan’s star player, Jonathan Sanders, fumbled… and recovered it. The next play, Holtz took the snap, and fumbled it…then picked it up and threw it into double coverage in the back of the end zone, finding Darby for the score, taking a 23-14 lead and ending the competitive portion of the evening’s entertainment.
The Millikan offense focused early and often – perhaps too often – on Sanders and Darby, its two wideout stars. In the first half, the offense sputtered, producing just three points (1-3 FG) on three trips into the Downey red zone. Sanders was visibly skittish after returning from a painful calf bruise. But in basketball, when the best scorer is shooting terribly, you tell him to shoot more. As the first half wound down, Sanders took a handoff 40 yards down the sideline to end the first half with a score.
Aside from the fumbles (Millikan had 9), the Rams played a solid game, with Holtz finishing 14/26 for 209 yards and 3 TDs. Their line looked sturdy on both sides of the ball, and they scored when they needed to. The 137 yards on the ground was especially impressive given that Silver Vaifanua, who takes a lot of snaps for the Rams, hurt his ankle in practice last week and didn’t play. Sanders struggled at times on defense, with the recent injury as well as adjusting to playing cornerback, but had one score on 80 yards rushing, and one catch for a 49-yard touchdown. He said a helmet to his healthy knee early in the game was bothering him, too. “That’s just football,” he said afterward. “It’s always something.”
For a team that just played its fourth game, the Millikan Rams must feel like the season has dragged on forever. Injuries, injuries, injuries have kept this team from reaching its full potential in any game – including a shootout loss to Gahr and a blowout win over Bellflower. Friday night, the Rams finally had enough healthy linemen to feature different players on both sides of the ball. The result? A punishing four-man rush (on defense) and plenty of time for QB Jake Holtz in the pocket (on offense). Despite all the time afforded to him, Holtz was sacked often in the first half. Assistant coaches pleaded for him to get rid of the ball, and Coach Diego begged receivers to get open and provide a target. It was then realized that Downey was rushing at least six defenders on every play and each Millikan receiver had single, man-to-man coverage. The passing attack was immediately more effective. “We finally had a lot of fun,” said Coach Diego.
The real story, though, was Darby, who is playing impressive ball for a junior—he finished with 8 catches for 106 yards and two touchdowns. Darby was also the Rams’ most effective player in the secondary, as the Vikings only completed a handful of passes to his side of the field. Elias Martinez, a 6’6″ defensive end, was a game changer up front, batting three balls, sacking Vikes QB Steven Cervantes twice and hitting him another dozen times. Martinez, and the rest of the Rams line, look like they’ll cause some Moore League teams problems in the coming months. Credit to Cervantes, too, for getting up and trotting back to the huddle each time—he’s a little guy, and he was taking a lot of licks in the backfield. He finished the game 14/35 for 180 yards, two TDs, and a pick. He fared better than the Vikings’ best back, Jeremiah Higgins, who lost three fumbles while managing only 69 yards on 18 carries.
When the Rams needed a boost, Darby was there. A tackle near the sideline, a tough first-down catch, an electric punt return. Just put the ball near Alden Darby and good things will happen. On an early third quarter drive, he dove for an overthrown pass down the sideline, then came back to an underthrown ball to catch, face two defenders and bully through them for six yards and a TD. “When we saw who we had and who we lost,” said Coach Diego, “We really felt like we needed [Darby] to play like a senior, even though he’s a junior. And he has.”
Diego acknowledged after the game that his team still has to work on their fundamentals, but he was happy with what his team took away from the game: namely, a win, and the peace of mind that comes with it. Plus, one benefit to the deluge of injuries the Rams have suffered is that they get another key player back every week: for next Friday, it’ll be Vaifanua, and the Rams will hope everyone stays healthy in practice this week. Next Friday they’ll host Wilson, who hung tough with Los Al tonight.
In short, Millikan fell behind 7-3, before ending on a 34-7 run and that was all she wrote. In long, an explosive team – still finding its own ability – played near health for the first time all year and overpowered its opponent after 2 ½ quarters of holding itself back with nerves and fumbles. They’ll need to be more consistent and stingy with the ball as they enter Moore League play, but the ability is there and the Millikan Rams have still not yet played their best ball.