Warrior gridders shut out Caimans

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Fallbrook High School obtained a 37-0 victory over Classical Academy in the Sept. 10 football game played at home.

"I thought the kids played very hard," said Fallbrook High Head Coach Troy Everhart. "It's nice to get a victory and it's nice to get a shutout. We got a lot of kids to play."

The game was scoreless in the first quarter. "We were successful in every series except the first one. The rest of the game we were able to do offensively pretty much what we wanted to do," Everhart said.

Fallbrook held a 23-0 halftime lead. In the second quarter, sophomore Marquise Washington had rushing touchdowns of 22, 6, and 5 yards. Josh McBroom made two of the three extra point attempts, and the senior added a 27-yard field goal during the period.

Washington had a two-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, when sophomore Chris Bausch scored an 18-yard touchdown on a rushing play. McBroom made both extra point attempts.

The 37-0 lead entering the fourth quarter exceeded the 35-point margin to trigger the running clock. "That running clock was pretty fast," Everhart said.

The Warriors had only one possession in the fourth quarter and focused on running down the clock rather than trying to run up the score.

The running clock explains why the Warriors' 354 total offensive yards didn't match the more than 460 yards gained in Fallbrook's 35-14 victory Sept. 3 at San Ysidro High School, and the fewer total yards can also be explained by better field position which reduced the number of yards between the start of the drive and the score.

"Defensively we created a short field," Everhart said. "The defense set up the offense. The offense capitalized. It was a good team picture."

Washington carried the ball 14 times, including his four touchdowns, and gained a total of 172 yards on the ground.

"Any time you get over 300 yards of offense I still think it's a very productive day," Everhart said.

The defensive areas for improvement included missed tackles. Everhart noted that the team had challenges against Classical Academy quarterback Life Pollard. "Their kid number 7 did a nice job," Everhart said.

Pollard had his own challenges; junior Caleb Quintero and sophomore Matt Wilson each intercepted a Caimans pass.

The Warriors had success in avoiding injuries. "We were able to keep our kids in the game the whole game," Everhart said. "We were able to keep our guys in and execute."

The win improved Fallbrook's season record to 2-2, so Fallbrook and Ramona will have identical records entering tomorrow night's game, Sept. 17, in Ramona which will commence Valley League competition for both teams. Everhart's first season with the Warriors was in 2019, when Fallbrook and Ramona entered the game against each other with identical 0-7 records.

In 2019, Ramona's four previous losses were all by six points or fewer. "They were a good 0 and 7," Everhart said.

Ramona had a 45-0 halftime lead in the 2019 game, and the final score was 48-8.

"I think what changed is our attitude," Everhart said.

"I think the biggest change is just the fact that now we believe we should be in the game with a quality team like Ramona," Everhart said. "I just feel like the whole attitude of the program's changed and I'm looking forward to it."