INLAND FIELDHOUSE

I covered the Corona-Riverside Poly varsity football game for the Riverside Press-Enterprise on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009 and came away thinking about my halftime chat with Pete Carroll. Yes, that Pete Carroll. Southern Cal head football coach Pete Carroll.

Cool guy. Very approachable. His charisma sort of oozes and I can see how/why the Trojans recruit so well — the man has the right answer to every question. He always knows the score.

I knew, full and well, that he was there to see Corona’s Jordon James but I asked him which players he was there to watch anyway. The first words out of his mouth? “I can’t tell you that. I’d get in big trouble. There are some great athletes on the field tonight, though.”

He then proceeds to tell me, off the record, which players he was there see. We also talk about a couple of other local players who have committed to other universities. 

“You can’t write that. You know that, right?” Carroll says.

“I know, coach. I know. Don’t worry,” I say.

“So, what’s it like to have a night off?” I ask since the Trojans don’t play again until Oct. 17 in South Bend, Ind. against Notre Dame.

“You think I have a night off?” Carroll asks.

I shrug.

“I’m working, buddy,” he says. “This is work.”

I tend to agree with him — driving 60 miles on a Saturday night to watch a couple of 17-year-olds play football doesn’t sound like a night off to me either.

“Coach — good luck against Notre Dame, coach,” I say and I begin to walk away.

“Dennis!” Carroll calls.

“Yeah, coach?” I ponder.

“You’re not going to write what we talked about, right?” he says.

“No, coach. You have my word,” I answer.

“Good. I’ll take that,” he says.

I then walk away knowing I’ve just met, rapped prep football, stood shoulder-to-shoulder and given my word to a national championship-winning football coach. All in the course of a 3-to-4 minute conversation. He’s even told me some pretty interesting “off-the-record” tidbits. That’s pretty awesome considering I completely lucked into the situation.

The game, to its credit, was very compelling. Poly was hosting its Homecoming and there was a packed house.

The Poly band and cheer did a rendition of “Thriller” at halftime and the game was almost as good.

Watch a video from the game here.

The Bears (3-2 overall, 1-1 Big VIII) trailed 21-17 in the third quarter when junior QB Matt Okey (6-foot, 180 pounds) hooked up with junior RB Ryan Salgado (5-10, 175) for 23 yards and a touchdown. Poly’s defense forced a fumble at midfield on Corona’s next possession and junior RB Jaron Farmer (5-10, 170) capped a 5-play, 46-yard drive with a six-yard touchdown run to make it 29-21. The Bears did not trail again.

The two teams had traded punches all night. Penalties were in abundance. The Corona coaches seem to have gotten the worst of it. The Panthers (1-4, 0-2) had three touchdowns called back because of penalties.

Highly-sought Corona senior RB Jordon James (5-10, 194) scored three touchdowns and had more than 200 total yards. He didn’t appear overly spectacular but was certainly productive. He seems his best fit in college would be as a defensive back.

Poly coach Jeff Huerta:

“We finished. We finished. The last two week we hadn’t finished a game. We play three good quarters. Tonight we played four quarters of football.”

How did you gameplan for Corona’s Jordon James?

“He’s a stud. He’s one of the best in the nation. We just had to be really focused, get guys in the right places and play team defense. We got broke down in the second quarter but we came back in the second half and did a much better job.”

What are your thoughts on Pete Carroll being here tonight?

“That’s pretty exciting. I’m a big USC fan. One of my coaches said ‘Hey, take a look. Carroll’s down there.’ I just think that pretty cool.”

Corona coach John Brandom:

“They wanted it more than we did tonight. That’s pretty apparent. That, in combination with the refs wanting them to win, too, apparently, is kinda frustrating. If we had done our business it had been a different outcome but they outplayed us tonight. We didn’t stop them when we needed to. They were running tha ball on us on a consistent basis. We were doing some things to take ourselves out of drives, as well. I give them credit. They played a heck of a game and they deserve to win.”