INLAND FIELDHOUSE

I covered the Riverside Poly-Riverside Ramona varsity football game for The Press-Enterprise on Friday, Sept. 9, 2011, and came away thinking about two-score leads and how hard they fall.

Ramona led by 10 points at 17-7 to begin the fourth quarter. And in one 3rd-and-10 seam route by Poly’s John Stuart, the Bears were alive, having reduced a daunting lead to three points.

On the Rams’ ensuing possession, T.J. Miller broke for 20 yards (Ramona’s longest run of the game) on first down and the game was still in control. Then came a false start penalty on 2nd down, a run for a loss, a sack on 3rd down and a punt. Uh-oh.

Poly took control of the ball on their own 33, and Steven Hamm took control of the game. He ran for four yards on 1st down, completed a pass to Matt Peck (pictured) for 11 yards on 3rd down, ran for nine yards on 1st down, three more on 2nd down, and completed another pass to Peck, this one for 39 yards on a game-winning touchdown with a little less than two minutes remaining.

Ramona seemed too exhausted to be angered or even deflated. One player (ONE!) threw something resembling a temper tantrum and screamed a obsenity. Everyone else was speechless. And the Rams still had a 2-minute drill to execute! Their lack of enthusiasm, I knew at the time, did not bode well for them.

Miller did his best, throwing for 11 yards on 2nd down, but was just 2 for 4 for 16 yards on his last drive. He also gained minus-4 yards on two carries, one of which turned the ball over on 4th down.

There it was — another two-score lead had fallen. This one more of the dime-a-dozen variety but nevertheless, what is it about two-score leads that give a team such a false sense of security? Is it the one-score gap? The thought that, “Hey we can give one up here and still win?” And why aren’t teams able to withstand one score without allowing a second game-changing score?

Ramona coach Bob Monk answered “Yes” when I asked him whether or not having a two-score lead affected the team’s mentality. How affected? For the Rams, a team that went 0-10 in 2010, winning is new. So new that Ramona’s season-opening 28-10 victory over Riverside King in Week Zero probably projected unrealistic confidence/expectations for Monk’s team.

Poly coach Jeff Huerta described it a little differently. Trailing by 10 points in the 4th quarter to a team he’s never lost to had his team feeling “shell-shocked,” Huerta said. “But we knew we could come back and do it,” he added.

And he had seniors like Peck and Hamm to help lead. “It (trailing by 10 points) was bad. I walked the sidelines trying to pump everyone up, ya’ know? Try and get everyone going. I told everyone, ‘We have to dig deep,’ to come out with the victory, and we did,” Peck said.

Added Hamm: “It (team morale) was kinda really low. We had low morale at that point but our defense and our offense both, we brought it up, stopped them.”

Conversely, there was no “but” in Bob Monk. Probably because his team has only one victory in 12 tries. That’s not a whole lot of positive experience to lean upon, especially for the seniors, but they’ll get there. The Rams are a spirited group with solid leadership. A winning season and even a playoff berth are not far away.

Riverside Ramona coach Bob Monk:
“I thought we drove the ball pretty well tonight. We had some opportunities. In the first half we drove the ball down to the 2-yard line and fumbled. Came back down, drove it again then threw an interception, again, and he had a receiver open who was looking at the ball, so you just can’t blow those opportunities. Defensively, I though we played tough in the second half but we just gave up big plays. We’ve got to shore those things up. I was happy. I thought we played physical and were able to establish a running game. and do some good things but we just have to learn how to finish, and put them away when we get the chance. We’re trying to get over that hump. You can’t take those little things for granted. … I think they’ll learn from this. Definitely learn from this. That’ll be a positive we can carry into the next week.”

Riverside Poly senior Matt Peck, recalling the game-winning TD:
“No huddle offense. I looked at the card. I saw a corner route so I knew so I knew he was pressing me, so I just ran with him, broke on the corner, saw the ball in the air, adjusted to it and made the catch. I saw no one in front of me, felt the guy slip off and I knew…  I knew I was scoring. We weren’t expecting them (Ramona) to come out and play this good. To come out and get this win over them… it means a lot. Gotta set a tone for the season.”