INLAND FIELDHOUSE

I covered the Lake Arrowhead Rim of the World-Riverside Notre Dame varsity football game for The Press-Enterprise on Friday, Nov. 11, 2011, and came away thinking its hard (for the second consecutive week) to watch the Titans attempt to play football.

Notre Dame was beat up in Week 9 by Rubidoux, and they were absolutely decimated by Rim of the World in Week 10.

Nearly each and every Titans drive was three plays and a punt. It was a pretty sad exhibition.

To his credit, interim coach Pete McGowan kept his chin up, and had effectively installed a spirit drill for the team that they preformed awkwardly, yet proudly. Good things are always around the corner for Notre Dame. They’ll be fine.

Rim of the World, or the mighty, Fighting Scots, are a small-town, smash-mouth squad hell-bent on running the ball up the gut.

The Scots scored on their first, second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh offensive series behind junior Jacob Taylor as Rim emassed 221 rushing yards and a 28-0 lead in the first half. The Titans, behind their talented senior class of QB Kevin O’Conner, Joshua Ivery and Dominique Easton, had two (2) total yards in the first half.

Rim of the World now awaits selection as an at-large berth in the CIF-Southern Section East Valley Division playoffs.

Notre Dame coach Pete McGowan:
“Our team has been fighting a lot of coaching change, a lot of changing in the offense. Rim of a very well-coached… I think they’re coach has been there almost 25 years, 30 years. The son is there, the grandson is there… Rim is a solid program. They probabaly should’ve been Citrus Valley and probably should’ve beat Rubidoux. They play all the way to the end — they hustle. For us it was just trying to keep us together through the ups and downs. I’m trying to connect and bring the pride back to the Titans, connect tradition and with the new players I think there was a loss of tradition. I got a lot of alumni here. Hopefully, Notre Dame can attain some continuity. Notre Dams means continuity.”

Rim of the World coach Bob Gradillas:
“Well we did what we had to do and we had to win. I think it gives us a good shot of getting into the playoffs as an at-large. That’s what we’re hoping. That’s all we could do is win. I think we should be one of the four (at-large) they take out of our division. We we’re going to try to control the ball, and keep their offense off the field ’cause (the Titans) are scary sometimes. We did a good job of doing that and a lot of kids got to play. It was a good win. The kids get to be excited, and I’m sure our kids will be excited to be there.”