Friday night’s football game between Coronado High School and Mar Vista High School was the 47^th time the two South Bay schools have squared off on the gridiron. Two hours after kickoff, the Islanders were headed north on the Strand Highway with a 35-12 victory, and a 27-20 lead in the series, while collectively clutching the Adrian Taufaasau Trophy, which Coronado won for the fourth consecutive time.

The series is particularly relevant to Islander Head Coach Bud Mayfield, who coached all three Taufaasau brothers; including Adrian, who passed away in 1996 after sustaining an on-field injury. "It’s always important to beat them. Mar Vista had speed, were really aggressive, and they were pumped up for the game."

Coronado led 14-6 at halftime, but the outcome of the game was still very much an open question at that juncture. Then Mayfield and his coaching staff decided to change things up a bit. "Our line is a little bit bigger this year. A lot of our plays have lateral blocking deployments. In the beginning of the game, they were too quick for us. In the second half, we went straight at them and that turned the tide. Then it was big guy vs. little guy and their quickness wasn’t important."

Throwing the ball enough to keep the defense honest, the Islanders did their damage on the ground. Senior tailback Kelcey Fisher ran for 85 yards, while quarterback David Loving ran Coronado’s counter option play to perfection, gaining 102 yards on the ground himself.

Fisher is also a defensive back and the team’s punter/place kicker. He is a perfect 11-11 in extra point conversions this season, and has a 22-yard field goal to his credit this season as well. It’s safe to say that Kelcey doesn’t leave the field often for the Islanders.

The same can be said of Loving, who also plays middle linebacker. "He’s a tough guy playing quarterback," said Mayfield of his senior signal caller. "He’s a good leader. His ball handling is exceptional. David is a fullback playing quarterback. We don’t have any turnovers this year, which is what we strive for. Usually if you are going to have turnovers, you’re going to have them early on (in the first few games). We’re pretty solid fundamentally for this early in the season."

The vast majority of Loving’s rushing yardage was earned on a play called the counter option, a favorite of Mayfield’s. "We’ve been running it for over 15 years and all of our quarterbacks have to learn that play. David loves it. He gets excited when I call it. All teams have signature plays and that’s one of ours."

Fisher and Loving earned black shirt recognition from the coaching staff for their play and were joined by center Ryland Gill and defensive back Chris Arthur in that honor. "Ryland played very well and he also played well the first week," Mayfield said. "I hope he keeps growing. You can’t do anything (on offense) without the center. It all begins there. Chris had an intercepted pass and a run back for a touchdown, although they (the game officials) didn’t give it to him. He dove at the end and hit the pylon."

Addressing his team’s overall play, Mayfield said, "I’m real pleased so far with our effort. I thought we were a little more hard-nosed with Mar Vista than we were the previous week against Southwest. It was another step for us. We got more physical."

At the conclusion of the game, the Islander team led by Captains Loving and Kyle McArthur, presented the Taufaasau trophy to Adrian’s mother Ivy Taufaasau, who watched the contest from the visiting side stands.

Coronado defeated Mar Vista in the freshman game played Thursday afternoon 55-20 and in the JV game played earlier Friday evening 27-20. The varsity game will be broadcast on Time-Warner Cable Channel 19 Wednesday at 7 pm, with yours truly and Football Booster Club President Terry Leary announcing the action.

Friday the Islanders (2-0) host Christian High School (2-1) at 7:30 pm and the Patriots come to town fresh from a 49-6 defeat of H-Town. Mayfield previewed the Patriots’ attack. "They have a quarterback who scrambles and throws well. They run some ‘I’ formation and they run the ‘fly’ series. They have a very good tailback in No. 5 (Lawrence Walker)." The contest figures to be another good one in the Coronado vs. Christian series.

For his team’s first regular season opponent, CHS Boys Water Polo Head Coach Randy Burgess selected perennially tough Newport Harbor, and on the road no less. Coronado, despite an early 4-3 lead and holding a 6-5 advantage at halftime, succumbed to their hosts by the final score of 14-8.

"We had a pretty bad second half," said Burgess of his team. "We made early-season mistakes and we paid heavily for the mistakes we made. They upset pre-season No. 1 Long Beach Wilson 9-5. The frustration was the mistakes we are making in practice, were the same mistakes we made Saturday. Instead of being a ‘do over’ in practice, it’s a goal in a game. Against Newport any time we did something wrong, they came back and scored."

The Islanders were a bit short-handed with senior center forward Jesse Farquhar sidelined with an ailment Burgess described as "jumper’s knee." Farquhar is undergoing therapy for the condition and could return to the lineup as early as Friday.

In the Newport Harbor contest, Preston Lujan scored four goals; Jacob Smith added two; with Sean Castillo and Eric Clapper scoring once each. John Landon dished out four assists; Devin Farrell was credited with two; while Daniel Pedrotty and Castillo had one each.

"Clapper did a really great job filling in for Jesse," said Burgess. "He drew three ejections and did a really great job establishing the center position. I think Landon had the standout game for our team. He had a couple of steals and three field blocks and played very well defensively. It wasn’t a big surprise, but he really stepped up and played well. The key individual highlight of the game was Landon’s performance."

"Lujan played well," continued Burgess. "We have a large number of guys who can put the ball in the net. Newport focused pretty heavily on Castillo up top and Clapper down low. We need Preston to take those shots. He was 4-7 from the field."

This week the Islanders host Cathedral Catholic Wednesday at 3 pm, the first regular season game in their new home at the Coronado Municipal Pool. "It’ll be our first home game in a while," Burgess said.

Friday they launch into the 32-team America’s Finest City Invitational, with a game at 1 pm. If they win their first game against Western High School of Anaheim, Coronado will play again at 5 pm. Coronado enters the tournament as the No. 2 seed, trailing No. 1 seed Harvard-Westlake, and just ahead of No. 3 Menlo Park from Palo Alto. The No. 4 seed is Mira Costa from Orange County and No. 5 is La Jolla. Tournament play will also be held at Rancho Bernardo and La Jolla High Schools, as well as at Miramar College.

When asked about his game plan for the tournament, Burgess replied, "We’ll take the same approach in the tournament we had going into Newport. We can’t worry about the opponents right now. A lot of teams played their first tournament last week. We’ll have played two games going into the tournament."

The Islander Girls Golf Team posted three victories last week and only one of them was a victory in the conventional sense. In their first match of the week on Monday, the Islanders defeated Mira Mesa 289-318, led by a round of 44 from Alexcie Sanchez. The next day, Patrick Henry forfeited due to not being able to field a complete team, but the Islanders and the Patriots hit the links anyway. Sanchez again led the way, this time with a 42, and she was joined by Lexi Donovan, who shot a personal best round of 48.

Things got exciting Wednesday as Coronado hosted OLP. In girls golf, six players compete and the best five rounds are totaled to compute the team score. Using this system, the two teams tied, which means the sixth player’s score is used to break the tie.

"Our gal shot a 76 and their gal had a 78 and we won by two strokes," said Head Coach Hanna Cohan. "What it brought to mind was that it is important to play your round out. Even though the last two scores were fairly high, it’s important to play them out and that’s what they did. We were very well matched with OLP."

"The girls are playing as a team," Cohan continued. "They have given up being individuals. Everyone has shown up for every match and they’ve been in uniform."

Monday the girls play their first road match at Cottonwood against a very tough team from Cathedral Catholic.

Girls Tennis Head Coach Robbin Adair reports on the successful week posted by the Islanders. "We defeated Mira Mesa 11-7 Wednesday and then defeated Canyon Crest Friday, also by the score of 11-7. Our overall record is 6-1 with competition in the Western League starting next week.

Against Mira Mesa, the first doubles team of freshmen Spencer Berman and Jen Carney led the way again, winning all three sets. Second doubles, played by Hayley Kitzmiller and Alicia Ruiz played well, but dropped two of three in tie breakers. Third doubles, played by Loren Metzger and Amanda Purvis, won two of three to give us a sizeable 7-2 lead in doubles.

In singles we won four of the nine sets, but two of the more dramatic sets occurred there. Tied late in the match, Allie Gordon was to play their No. 3 and Nicole Aponte was to play their No. 1. We needed one of the two sets to win by a game count, and both girls fought off early-set service breaks to come back and pull out the sets. Allie won 6-4 and Nicole won 7-5.

Against Canyon Crest, we played a lot of our younger players and it was an interesting match, played at Torrey Pines High School. Carney and Berman played singles in this contest and each swept all three of their matches. Senior Lindsey Warriner played third singles and won one. In doubles, sophomore Lorena Hernandez and freshman Hannah Schneider won two of three; sophomores Simmi Deo and Corrie Morse won one match; and juniors Briege McConville and Hannah Glasoe won one match.

This week we play at Mission Bay Wednesday and then open Western League play the next day when we host Cathedral Catholic, formerly USDHS."

Boys and Girls Head Cross Country Coach George Green brings us up to date on his squads. "With the first Central League cross country dual meet looming October 7^th, both the boys and girls teams are coming together. Saturday at the Mt. Carmel Invitational at Morley Field, Ben Enowitz placed eighth in the Division II sophomore race with a time of 16:48 over the 2.95-mile course. He was followed by Islander teammates Michael Davies, who finished in 26^th in a time of 17:46; Jose Tijerina in 19:02; then Josh Fink and Jake McMahon.

In the Division II freshman race, David Grimes clocked 18:40 for 13th place, followed by Cotter Stacy who was less than a minute behind. In the boys senior race, Andrew Falkiewicz, running his first high school race, turned in a time of 18:26.

Although missing several team members at this event, the girls placed well with Karolin Ivarsson leading the Islanders in 20:10 over the girls’ 2.75-mile course. She was followed by Sheila Braun in 20:59, Katy Gomrick in 21:25 and Allison Cabana in 22:01.

The CHS Girls Volleyball Team defeated Grossmont in straight sets 25-17, 25-21, and 25-11 Wednesday of last week, before playing at Patrick Henry Friday. Unfortunately, the Islanders rode into the game without seniors Megan Mushovic and Kelly Phelps, who were on recruiting trips and junior Emmy Pickett, who sustained a thumb injury.

"Phelps and Mushovic were gone and I support that, said Head Coach Phil Trotter. "They have earned the right to go check out schools. I’m definitely proud of what they have accomplished."

On the flip side, some of the younger Islanders received playing time that might pay dividends down the road, a theory not lost on Trotter. "We had a lot of girls playing out of position and they really played well. Karli Massie is our backup setter and it was a great opportunity for her to come in and play. Christy Mebust and Kelsey Fitzgerald are sophomores who play all the time, and they had to step up. Sara Noceto and Kendall Caldwell stepped in and played well. Kendall, who also plays soccer, actually can fill in at a couple of positions. It’s always nice to have good athletes."

Coronado lost to Patrick Henry by the scores of 26-24, 25-18, and 25-20, but put up a good effort in the process. "The Patrick Henry coach was shocked and thrilled at the same time," said Trotter. "We’re going to be really tough. We have Morse this Wednesday (at CHS, 3:30 pm). It will be our second league match. We’re ranked in the county now, somewhere in the Top 15. It’s nice to be ranked, but more importantly we’re ranked third in Division IV." Coronado completes their schedule this week at Mission Bay Friday, also at 3:30 pm.

Our friends at the "San Diego Union-Tribune" have thus far successfully resisted the temptation to jump on the USD Torero Football bandwagon. Last week USD defeated Yale 17-14 and it marked the first time USD had ever defeated an Ivy League opponent. The U-T managed to bury the good news on the 16^th page of the Sunday sports section, while SDSU’s 27-6 loss at Ohio State was front page news. Let’s accept the fact that the Aztecs are going nowhere fast, yet again this season, with their 0-3 start.

CHS alumnus J.T. Rogan (CHS ’04), a red shirt freshman at USD, caught a 2-yard touchdown pass to put the Toreros ahead of Yale for good. Rogan gained a total of 63 yards on 25 carries and added seven pass receptions for 47 yards. USD is now 3-0 and the U-T should shift at least some of their coverage accordingly.

Meanwhile, the San Diego Chargers own bandwagon is losing members left and right, as they lost at Denver 20-17 Sunday. Saddled with an 0-2 start, the Chargers were outplayed by the Broncos in a mistake-filled contest that San Diego would have found a way to win last season. The Chargers have not been able to establish their running game and running back LaDainian Tomlinson, proclaimed by many to be the best football player in the NFL regardless of position, looks merely mortal.

In the NFL, the schedule you face is based on the results of the prior year and the Chargers find themselves confronted with a first place schedule for their non-division games, as well as a tough AFC West schedule which includes Denver, Oakland, and Kansas City for two games each.

Next week the Chargers host the New York Giants and the locals better kick it into gear. If San Diego loses, USD can rent the Chargers empty bandwagon and we’ll all pull for the Toreros.