The teams of Jon Kitna at Lincoln (Wash.) and Long Beach Poly's Antonio Pierce combine to score 190 points, but opposing coaches carry no ill will.
A pair of high school coaches, both former NFL players, have answered scrutiny for their teams scoring more than 90 points in separate games on Friday night.
Lincoln (Tacoma, Wash.) led Mount Tahoma 70-0 at halftime en route to a 91-0 win, while in California,
Long Beach Poly defeated Compton 99-9.
Antonio Pierce, Long Beach Poly
File photo by Heston Quan
Lincoln (5-0) is coached by former NFL quarterback Jon Kitna, and Long Beach Poly coach Antonio Pierce played linebacker for the Redskins and Giants during a nine-year career.
Mount Tahoma coach Ricky Daley told T.J. Cotterill of
thenewstribune.com that he and Jon Kitna are good friends and that Lincoln didn't run up the score.
Kitna's son
Jordan Kitna passed for 197 yards and seven touchdowns, all in the first half.
"I know (Jon) is a good man," Daley said. "They were trying to get some other guys some work later in the game and we just couldn't keep them from scoring. … People are going to question (the score), but what are you going to do? Just give us the ball back? … We just have to work on a lot of things."
Jon Kitna told the newspaper that none of his starters played in the second half and all 60 of his players participated. Lincoln scored 10 first-half touchdowns, five in each quarter.
"We didn't want to do anything in the second quarter and beyond that could be missonstrued as rubbing it in someone's face or going over the top. That was a difficult second quarter."
Poly (5-1), which has sent more football players to the NFL than any high school in the country, recorded its most lopsided victory since 1921 when the Jackrabbits defeated LaVerne College 105-0.
Pierce told Mike Mike Guardabascio of the
Gazettes.com: "We ran the ball the whole second half. … We brought up a ton of guys off our JV and frosh/soph teams and all 75 guys we dressed played tonight."
Poly threw just one pass the second half.
When asked if Poly ran up the score, Compton coach Elijah Asante told Guardabascio: "No, not at all. They ran the ball and we couldn't stop them. They didn't do anything wrong. This just shows how far we have to go as a program."
