INLAND FIELDHOUSE

I covered the Fontana Kaiser-Bloomington varsity football game on Friday night for the Riverside Press-Enterprise and came away thinking Kaiser isn’t nearly as good as their shutout victory might indicate. Bloomington, on the other hand, may actually be that bad.

For starters, Kaiser attempted only four passes in the entire game. That’s not unusual on the high school level. What is unusual is that they gained less than 175 yards on offense and still managed to win the game, 14-0 at Bloomington.

Their quarterback, senior Laval Mann (5-11, 180 lbs), completed just two throws for 14 total yards. Mann, starting in place of Richard De Luna (concussion), also had two rushes for less than 5 yards.

Thier leading rusher, senior Adam Ramirez (5-11, 195 lbs), ran for just 58 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. That’s an average of 3.6 yards per rush — hardly the type of production needed to advance deep into the CIF playoffs.

Kaiser also had a ton of problems on point-after attempts and field-goal tries. Both PATs following Ramirez’s TDs were blocked as the Cats had their protection blown up a the line of scrimmage. They also had a FG blocked in the same fashion.

This made head coach Dick Bruich, well, irate. The long-time coach didn’t have much of a voice to yell with, but he screeched and squealed at his lineman, one by one, as they came off the field; using just as many expletives as he could miserly muster.

One exchange, which was worth remembering, had the coach singling out a senior lineman. It went something like this:

“Shut the f*ck up! You’ve already cost us two god damn points. When are you gonna pull your head out of your ass and do what we’ve practiced. For crissakes, I swear your never gonna f*ckin’ learn.”

Not your typical coach-speak, but nevertheless effective. The kid shut up, although he didn’t block any better.

Kaiser’s defense, though undersized, was able to withstand Bloomington’s passing attack after the Bruins run offense was rendered useless. The Cats held one of the finest RB corps in San Bernardino County to just four yards rushing. FOUR. The entire game. I don’t know how they did it. Oh wait, yes I do.

Bloomington came out throwing for some bizarre reason. Senior Eric Johnson (5-10, 205 lbs) attempted 13 consecutive passes to begin the game. Did I mention they have a great running game? They have All-County selection Keith Williams (5-7, 170 lbs) and UCLA commit Jayson Allmond (6-2, 248 lbs) and yet only ran the ball twice in the first half.

Johnson did have some success threw the air, but nothing substantial. He certainly couldn’t put the ball in the end zone. He finished the game having completed 19 of 35 pass attempts for nearly 180 yards but was also picked-off twice in the second half after his throws started wobbling and coming up short of intended receivers.

Bloomington coach Thomas Conner went with a few more runs in the third and fourth quarters, but by then it was far too late to establish anything of consequence. Allmond finished with only one rushing attempt (which went for negative yardage) and Williams finished with six yards on five rushes.

Maybe Conner thought his team could advance the ball through the air against Kaiser. And it did. But the Bruins lacked balance, choosing to pass rather run, and at a 3-to-1 ratio.

Seems Conner should read a page or two from Bruich’s playbook. The part where they run first, pass second; not the part where every attempted kick get blocked. Bloomington has enough trouble scoring already.