INLAND FIELDHOUSE

I covered the Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos-Ontario Chaffey varsity football game for the Riverside Press-Enterprise on Friday, Nov. 27, 2009 and came away thinking that maybe Chaffey coach Chris Brown should have tried something a little different on his two-point conversion attempts.

Brown twice called for a pitch left to senior RB Ronald Douglas (5-foot-9, 185 pounds) and twice the play was sniffed out by Los Osos and Douglas was stuffed. In a game as close as this one was — the final score was Los Osos 28, Chaffey 26 — the potential four points meant the game.

When I asked Brown, after the game, if we would do anything differently now, he said: “No. I might but I don’t think so. That’s just the way it goes. I’d run the play again. Our kids ran it all night (Los Osos) just made a play on it. What can you say?”

What can I say? I can say that when you’ve seen a play run, I don’t know, a dozen times already, even a poor defense can figure out how to defend it so long as the talent matches up. And the disparity between Chaffey and Los Osos, talent-wise, is negligible.

I just wasn’t a smart play call, especially the first attempt. The Tigers (8-4) had just scored on a four-yard Douglas run to the left and Brown called for his team to try the exact same play on the very next play. That’s not very imaginative. At least go the other direction!

The second conversion attempt came in the fourth quarter after the Tigers scored to get to 28-26. Brown called for the pitch left to Douglas, again. And again it was stuffed. The Tigers attempted an on-side kick but it was recovered by the Grizzlies and after a couple of knees from Los Osos QB Blake Loncar (6-4, 220), the game was over

Douglas, to his credit, ran for more than 200 yards in his final game. He finishes his season with well over 2,600 yards and 25 TDs. He hasn’t committed to a school yet but there should be at least a few interested programs.

Ditto for Loncar. The guys got a cannon arm and he’s tall and mobile. Maybe some JUCO time will help his maturity process but there are no questions about his physical tools.

Los Osos moves on to the Central Division semifinals, where it’ll face Rnacho Cucamonga and senior QB Greg Watson. The Cougars are continuing their quest for back-to-back CIF titles.

QUOTES FROM PLAYERS AND COACHES:

Chaffey coach Chris Brown:
“Their offense is so good I knew we couldn’t keep our defense out there too long. We had to run the ball to keep it away from their offense. That the primary reason and that’s what we do. I’m just proud of our kids. Nobody gave us a chance and we played a great football game. It came down to a couple of play and they just made more and good luck to them in the semis. I think (Douglas) did a great job. He played so hard, the character that he showed in just running so hard… I’m just proud of the effort of our kids. We played as hard as we could and it came down to a couple of plays. That happens sometimes in football. We got better each week. We played the Baseline League champs and gave them all they could handle so I’m very proud of our kids, very proud of our program.”

Los Osos RB Keiran Wright:
“Hey man, I just want to thank all my line, bro. They’re the one’s who did it. They’re the one’s making the holes. Let’s beat Rancho (Cucamonga) again, baby!”

Los Osos coach Tom Martinez:
“They kept running the same play to the same side. You probably saw that, too. So our defensive coordinator basically sent the house to that side. You saw that we got some penetration and stopped it. They ran the ball, they ran the ball and really moved it one us and we stopped them just enough to get the win. It’ll be a big game (against Rancho). We’ve beat them once already. They’re our big rival so it’ll be a big game.”