Shootout to end all shootouts: What we learned in Pacific high school football Week 11.0
Published: November 8, 2009
Musings, mutterings and the occasional schmahts as Ornauer hopes that the weather holds and the Class AA all-in-one-location playoffs can live up to the Class A championship game's drama:
-- Was that a fantabulous Class A title game or what? It had a little of everything to please the gridiron lover's palate. Zama American's ground machine vs. Daegu American's spread option. Passing touchdowns. Rushing touchdowns, A kick-return touchdown. Even a bit of trickeration that came seven days too late for Halloween.
-- Zama's 46-38 victory over Daegu was the highest-scoring game in the five-year history of DODEA Pacific Far East football playoffs.
-- Daegu led 38-34 at halftime; the 72 points easily were the most in any two periods in any Far East playoff game.
-- Fourth straight year that the DODEA Japan team won the Class A title.
-- A bit of inglorious Trojans history wiped clean from the slate -- Zama boys had not won a Far East team title of any kind since wrestling in 1979. Wrestling also shared a Far East team title in 1982 with St. Mary's International.
-- Michael Spencer's 45 carries for 312 yards and four touchdowns, all Far East playoff single-game records. The 312 yards is the 11th most all time in Pacific single-game yardage lore.
-- Tre Griffin's 18-for-35 for 360 yards, the yards easily a Far East playoff single-game record.
-- David Martinez's 6 catches for 173 yards and two touchdowns plus an 84-yard kick-return touchdown for 257 all-purpose yards. Easily the most for a receiver in both offensive and total yards.
-- Zama's 451 rushing yards easily a record for a Class A title game. Combine Zama's 562 offensive yards with Daegu's 414; nearly 10 trips up and down the field.
-- Guns up!
-- Couldn't have asked for better weather.
-- Far better than Sunday's was.
-- What in the name of Boise State was Daegu coach Ken Walter doing, having his assistants yelling at Griffin to "get somebody off the field! You've got 12 out there!" Martinez turned and appeared to be leaving the field, but abruptly turned again and ran a flag pattern up the right sideline as the ball was snapped, with Griffin hitting him in stride.
-- Faked me right out of my socks. "That play's coming back. That play's coming back," I said aloud. Until Shaw Rast, an assistant coach, told me, "It's a trick play." Resulting in a 66-yard touchdown.
-- Faked the head referee out of his socks. Daegu used the very same play against Osan in the Warriors' 30-28 overtime win the previous week, and yet the referees bit on the play as hard as I did.
-- It's called "The Sideline Play." Shades of Chris Peterson; only he and Walter would have the grapefruits to call a play like that. Or "Circus," the hook-and-lateral that Petersen, Boise's coach, called on fourth-and-18 from Oklahoma's 47 with less than a minute left to tie the 2006 Fiesta Bowl 35-35. Or "Statue," when Ian Johnson took a curl-around handoff into the end zone for the game-winning two-point conversion, then got down on one knee and propose to his cheerleader girlfriend Chrissy Popadics. On national TV. You can't script stuff like that any better.
-- Cuisine of the week: Those weren't your average, ordinary hamburgers, hot dogs and brats being cooked in the hibachi area behind Camp Walker's Kelly Field. Warrior Burgers, Warrior Dogs and Warrior Brats are made with "love and dedication," one of the chefs said. Tasty stuff. Nothing like a hot dog with a ballgame in front of it, n'est-ce pas?
-- You think Guam High didn't have a belly full of fire going into that third-place game Friday with John F. Kennedy? Fresh off the stinging memory of a 20-12 semifinal loss the week before to Father Duenas Memorial, Jason Brunson and the Panthers walked all over the Islanders 42-0. Good momentum builder for the playoffs.
-- It's official: The Geckos are back.
