St. Augustine kicker ties section record in San Diego

As a rule, kickers don't draw much attention – unless they miss a boot when the game is on the line.

Former San Diego Chargers kicker Rolf Benirschke used to take a daily ribbing from his teammates. It was something about kickers being non-athletes. Benirschke took the ragging in stride. His mantra was "if you convert a kick, you should have. If you miss the mark, you're a goat."

Forget about tackles and touchdowns. The pressure is always on a kicker to come through.

Seamus McMorrow, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound junior at St. Augustine (San Diego) has already put his best foot forward. He kicked a 58-yard field goal, tying the San Diego Section record. He shares the best boot with Rancho Bernardo's Nate Tandberg (1995) and Torrey Pines' Hayden Epstein (1997).

"I've always dreamed of that," the 16-year-old McMorrow told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "I've always dreamed of a game winner or the longest kick."

McMorrow followed his record kick, which came at the close of the first half in a 48-27 win over Scripps Ranch, with a 61-yard touchdown run on a fourth-quarter fake punt. A week later he converted a 51-yard field goal with room to spare against Lincoln.

EL CAJON CHRISTIAN'S SAULS SIZZLES IN RECORD RUN
Senior Tyrone Sauls scored seven touchdowns, rushed for 364 yards on 25 carries and finished with 454 all-purpose yards for Christian (El Cajon) (5-4). Fact is, Sauls scored all the Patriots' touchdowns – six came on rushes of 65, 12, 3, 8, 35 and 8 yards. He also reeled in a 42-yard scoring aerial from quarterback Shane Dillon.

The seven touchdowns ties the San Diego Section record shared by nine others.

"Good grief – what a night Sauls had," declared Christian head coach Matt Oliver. "That gives him 12 touchdowns in the last two games. He was running over guys, trucking guys and just dragging people with his speed and power. If we would have just kept giving the ball to him he would have had more."

Sauls was humble when asked to review his performance.

"Our offensive line was giving them a hard time and I mostly ran on an open field. They were trying to tackle me high and I just shook them off. This was a breakthrough game for me, but really the only thing that matters is we won the game and got a little bit more momentum for the (SDCIF Division V) playoffs."

Sauls also had 66 yards on two receptions and returned a kickoff 24 yards.

MOUNT MIGUEL HOPES TO END PUSH-UP RITUAL
Mount Miguel (Spring Valley) receiver Franco Luna noted a weekly routine for the Matadors this season. It's all about push-ups and the football program's history.

"Every Friday this season we've closed our pre-game workout by doing 22 push-ups," said the junior wide receiver. "Each of those push-ups signifies a year that we hadn't won a (league) championship."

Bottom line is, Mount Miguel, which finished the regular season undefeated in 1987, still has not guaranteed itself a league title this year.

Even though it didn't look like it, host Mount Miguel's 21-20 double overtime victory Friday over visiting El Capitan (Lakeside) did more to create confusion than it did to set a charge for a Matadors' celebration.

For the record, Mount Miguel tied the visiting Vaqueros 14-14, which in actuality left El Capitan (4-4-1, 3-0-1) atop the Grossmont Valley League standings.

While the Vaqueros – who have won a school record three straight league titles – will conclude their regular season with a nonleague game against Francis Parker, the Matadors (7-1-1, 2-0-1) are looking at a must-win situation against GVL and Spring Valley rival Monte Vista in next week's season-ender.

"Everybody said we had no chance to even be in this game," El Capitan coach Ron Burner said of his Vaqueros, who were underdogs going in against the Matadors. "But the big thing is we're league champions – no matter what."

Burner was speaking in terms of reality: If the Matadors win – as they should – against Monte Vista they will be co-champions with the Vaqueros. If Mount Miguel stumbles against the Monarchs, the dry spell without a league title will continue for the Matadors.

The Vaqueros could have knocked the Matadors out of the running in the final seconds of Friday's game, but missed a 24-yard field goal with 6.3 seconds remaining.

VISTA BOUNCES BACK AGAINST LONGHORNS
Vista's Panthers (8-1) rebounded from an upset loss a week earlier as quarterback Christian Gallardi passed for 304 yards and three touchdowns.

This was no solo act as Gallardi's teammate Stefan McClure caught eight passes for 218 yards and three touchdowns. McClure also returned an interception 33 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter of the Panthers' 35-10 victory over the Longhorns.

"On the offensive side, yeah I played well," McClure told The North County Times. "Defensively, I didn't get it done on some plays."

Vista coach Danny Williams, however, was plenty impressed with his senior two-way starter.

"He's a pretty dominant kid," Williams said.

SAN MARCOS TAKES LOW ROAD TO VICTORY LANE
It took San Marcos 60 points to put the squeeze on Orange Glen a year ago. The final score, in fact, read 60-56 in favor of the Knights.

This year's rematch was a complete makeover. San Marcos needed only seven points to escape with a one-point victory when Knights quarterback M.J. Bailey hit receiver Quincy Rodriguez for a 36-yard touchdown pass with 1:22 remaining.

OTHER TOP PERFORMANCES
— Helix (La Mesa) junior quarterback Brandon Lewis clicked on 22 of 33 passes for 348 yards and five touchdowns in the Highlanders' 55-10 rout of Granite Hills.

— Oceanside sophomore quarterback Tofi Pao Pao connected on 13 of 17 passes for 152 yards and a pair of touchdowns as the Pirates won their fifth straight.

— Morse (San Diego) junior Tre Roberts rushed for 207 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries in the Tigers' 32-0 win over Clairemont.

— Valhalla (El Cajon) junior quarterback Frank Foster was on target on 21 of 26 passes for 240 yards and a touchdown against West Hills. Foster also rushed for 46 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries.

— Sophomore Nathan Medrano of Tri-City Christian (Vista) accounted for 218 yards and scored two touchdowns while touching the ball just eight times in a 44-27 victory over La Jolla Country Day.

— Mission Hills (San Marcos) senior quarterback Hunter Moore hit 11 of 14 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns in a 35-14 victory over Escondido.

— Junior Tyler Tony of San Pasqual (Escondido) rushed for 131 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries in a 37-13 victory over Fallbrook.

COMING ATTRACTIONS
The top contest in the CIF-SDS pits No. 5 Helix (9-0) against No. 7 Steele Canyon (Spring Valley) (8-1) in a battle for the Grossmont Hills League championship Friday in La Mesa.

One of the area's biggest attractions – aka 'The Holy Bowl' – matches No. 10 Cathedral Catholic (San Diego) (5-4, 4-0) against St. Augustine (7-2, 3-1) for the Eastern League title Friday at San Diego Mesa College. The latter affair will attract a crowd in excess of 5,500.

DICKENS' DEALINGS
The subject is overtime football – yea or nay?

Confusion reigns throughout the CIF. Nobody seems willing to take a stand on whether tie games should be broken by the same format used in college football. Worse than that, the majority of officials, coaches and school administrators will not stencil in an official ruling.

For example, when Division III teams El Capitan and Mount Miguel concluded regulation in a 14-14 tie in a Grossmont Valley League game to decide the circuit championship, the squads continued into the overtime phase. After two rounds of OT, Mount Miguel squeezed out a one-point victory.

However, according to the CIF-SDS bylaws the game will officially be recorded as a tie and probable co-championship (if Mount Miguel closes the regular season with win over Monte Vista).

The question here is why play the game off with extra sessions if it will historically go down as a tie in the end?

My opinion is all ties should be played off through the overtime process regardless of the stakes. Thus, there should be no ties — period. CIF-SDS officials have declared that the only reason for conducting overtime is for the purpose of helping seed the playoffs.

Baloney.

When CIF-SDS Division IV foes Santana and Imperial were tied 14-14 at the close of regulation, the game ended. No overtime. So, now how do you seed one team ahead of the other?

Once again, the powers-that-be continue to take their usual wishy-washy stance.