INLAND FIELDHOUSE

I covered the Corona Centennial-Riverside King varsity football game on Friday, Oct. 9, 2015, for The Press-Enterprise, HSGametime.pe.com & @PEcom_preps and came away thinking, ‘At least King tried something new this time.’

Junior QB Bradley Kleven attempted 50(!) passes against Centennial, and unless my memory fails, it’s the most I’ve ever seen in a prep game. As I noted previously, I’ve covered this matchup each of the last five seasons. Never before has a King QB thrown the ball so much.

Once or twice a season I’ll cover a game in which a QB gets upwards of 35 attempts (or perhaps even 40), but as Kleven crept towards 50 attempts — and finally got there late in the fourth quarter — I got that sense that I was seeing something for the first time. Prep football, after all, is most often of the three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust variety.

Coach Matt Logan and Centennial have done a lot to change that in the Inland Area, but it’s a rare circumstance when the Huskies are on the receiving end of such an aerial assault.

To wit: Kleven completed 23 of his tries for 236 yards. He connected with senior TE Tyler Krepsz nine times for 71 yards, but also was intercepted three times by Centennial’s outstanding defensive backfield.

Centennial did a lot wrong to keep it close; The Huskies were penalized 11 times for 90 yards — including two penalties that reversed touchdowns — and also fumbled twice, once a punt and once from WR Javon McKinley.

The mistakes were outdone, however, as QB Anthony Catalano and RB J.J. Taylor combined for more than 400 total yards in leading the Huskies to their 11th consecutive win in the series.

Centennial head coach Matt Logan:
“I didn’t think we came out with the intensity we needed to play football tonight, and I was a little disappointed. Especially in the first half, and they did a good job controlling the clock and keeping the ball away. They got some first downs and were churning. We did a good job once they got in the red zone of keeping them out of the end zone, so that was a good job there, but I just don’t think we were fully ready, engaged tonight. I’m a little disappointed in that. I don’t think we scored on the one possession — we fumbled — in a two-minute drill. Other than that we scored but we struggled a little bit. Again, I think it was more so our doing. It was good that we got to play a little longer tonight. They got to play into the fourth quarter so that was good for us, and we just have to continue to work and understand what it takes to be a championship team and the intensity you have to come out with every Friday night. We’re very senior dominant so as a collective group they need to understand that, and we’ll talk about that tonight and a lot on Monday, and prepare and get ready for Roosevelt next week.”

King head coach Kevin Corridan:
“In games like this you’re trying to win every play. You have to succeed when you get opportunities, and we had some opportunities. (Centennial) played really solid defense but we should have capitalized on some things early that would have kept the score a little tighter, and I think that keeps our momentum going. The kids, all in all, they gave us everything they could. (Centennial) has given up just 14 points with their first-team defense all year so we tried to get them with the pass, just the quick one, three steps and get it out to let us to be able to run the ball, and I think we did that pretty effectively at times. Our kids competed their tails off. I’m proud of their effort.”