CIF Bowl D2: A backup one week for Servite, a national hero the next

Echeverry lives a dream by delivering four times with state-bowl championship at stake.

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Dec 19, 2009, 12:00am
CARSON, Calif. - He had dreamed of the moment for four years, and it came with 2.1 seconds left in the California State Divison II Bowl Championship. Still, Nick Echeverry was nervous, and not just any kind of nervous.

“I was never so nervous in my entire life,” the senior kicker from Anaheim Servite said. “I came out here and wanted to do a couple of kicks and do well for my team, but I never expected this moment to come.”

As time ticked off the clock, Echeverry's right leg was true from 23 yards, and one of the smallest guys on the field became one of the biggest heroes in Servite history as the Friars defeated Rocklin, 33-30.
Servite senior kicker Nicholas Echeverry delivers the game-winning field goal.
Servite senior kicker Nicholas Echeverry delivers the game-winning field goal.
Photo by Dirk Dewachter
Echeverry's heroics – he kicked four field goals and three point-after touchdowns – quelled a Rocklin comeback. The Thunder had trailed, 30-10, with less than three minutes left in the third quarter before mounting a rally that went to the wire.

“I was so nervous the whole game,” Echeverry said after Servite had run down the game's final 1 minute 51 seconds. “I went over on the sidelines, psyched myself into kicking well.

“My whole high school career I've thought about kicking a game-winner such as tonight and preparing myself for it.”

Echeverry, who stands 5-feet-6 and weighs 160 pounds, didn't even start last week. He lost a kicking competition to junior Connor Loftus, who got the nod when the Friars took on unbeaten Huntington Beach Edison in the Southern Section Pac-5. Servite won that rain-soaked game, 16-6, in a game that was demonic for kickers who went a combined one for five; Loftus was one-for-four and had a point-after blocked.

“I ended up losing the competition fair-and-square,” Echeverry said. “This week I wanted to do well in the competition, I did my thing, and I got a chance to kick tonight.”

With Echeverry's winning boot, Servite (14-1) beat its third consecutive unbeaten team; it also defeated Mission Viejo (12-1) in the section semifinals before beating Edison (13-1) and Rocklin (14-1).

Echeverry is actually a better soccer player than he is football player, though you'd never know it based on his performance Saturday in which he kicked twice as many field goals as he had leading into the game. “I like to call myself a soccer player by nature, a kicker by default,” Echeverry said. “I really was a soccer player and I just came out and tried out for the football team (as a freshman) and got a kicking job. It was great. It was awesome.”

Never more awesome than lining up against Rocklin. In addition to the game-winning 23-yarder, Echeverry also kicked field goals of 47, 39 and 43 yards. His 39-yarder came as time expired on the second half to complete a Servite drive that, after Rocklin missed a field goal, went from its own 20 to the Rocklin 21 with 2:38 left in the half.

“We believe in competition at that spot,” Servite Coach Troy Thomas said of his placekickers. “Both are very talented kickers. We gave the senior the nod early in the season, then the junior took over.”

In fact, Echeverry began the season as the starter, but missed a practice, which opened the door for Loftus. “The younger kid beat him out and was kicking really well,” Thomas said. There is also a third kicker involved, Everett West.

But proving that practice makes for a perfect moment, Echeverry won during the week, then won when it mattered.

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