Taken as a unit, the goal-line stand defensive front four of the Coronado High School Football Team weighs more than half a ton. Saturday afternoon seniors Levi Lozano, Dustin West, and Tim Sexton, joined by junior Ben Thorne, stopped four consecutive Crawford running plays from inside the 1-yard line and helped the Islanders defeat the Colts 28-0 in an important Central League contest.

Crawford took the opening kickoff and retained possession of the ball for the next 10 minutes of play, eventually arriving on the Coronado one foot line. Islander Head Coach Bud Mayfield picks up the narrative. "The best defense on the goal line is to attack. The guys (Crawford’s offensive line) trying to push them out were as big as they are. It was a battle of the bull elephants. That (defensive series) really did spark us."

Coronado took over on downs and put on a drive of their own, before they were stopped on downs at the Crawford 27-yard line. The Colts then put together an eight play drive, ending with a pass interception and nifty return from Coronado defensive back Chris Arthur. The Islanders scored four plays later on a 37-yard pass play from quarterback David Loving to Ricardo Oberwager. The Islanders took a 6-0 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Arthur ignited the Islanders again to begin the second half, returning the kickoff 50 yards to the Colts 30-yard line. Five plays later, Loving scored on a seven-yard run and followed that effort with a three-yard dash for a two-point conversion to put the Islanders in command 14-0. Oberwager added a 12-yard touchdown romp in the third quarter and tailback Kelcey Fisher topped off a 101-yard rushing effort with a two-yard touchdown scamper in the fourth quarter.

Fisher displayed his versatility in the game played at Crawford, playing corner back on defense, performing at both the tailback and fullback spots on offense, and repeatedly kicking off deep into Crawford territory. The coaching staff awarded him the Islander Black Shirt designation for the week, as the team’s MVP for the last game.

Thorne spent much of the game in the Crawford backfield, recording two sacks and several other tackles for Colt losses. Mayfield discussed the play of several other Islanders. "Arthur played well, with the kick-off return and the interception and a nice return. Loving played very well and gave us great leadership. Yards (rushing) are tough for a quarterback, but he had key runs as he always does. David was very steady and very determined.

Kyle McArthur had a deep thigh bruise, but he wouldn’t come off the field. Oberwager got his first start on defense and it’s great for a sophomore to play both ways in a big game. Sexton played well. The interior line is allowing the linebackers to make more tackles. And we continue to get steady play each week from Ryland Gill at center. If he doesn’t get it right, it doesn’t happen. Ryland has been very steady for us."

Coronado is now 4-2 overall and tied atop the Central League standings with a 2-0 conference record. University City and Madison are also undefeated at 2-0. This sets up an important Homecoming game Friday, when the Islanders host Kearny at 7:30 pm.

Mayfield knows the Komets will be a challenge. "They have some really huge people and some really good athletes. Their quarterback (senior Robert Underwood) may be one of the best athletes in the league. They make mistakes and stop themselves from being successful. If they stop making mistakes, they could be trouble despite their (1-6) record. Kearny continues to play hard. They are trying to get their program going. They were dead even with University City for a long time in their game last week."

Conversely, the Islanders made virtually no mistakes in last week’s contest at Crawford, only being whistled on a very iffy pass interference call and on an illegal procedure penalty. "We broke the snap count for one of the first times in six games," Mayfield said. "I was really happy with the discipline (we showed)."

"We’re playing physically and it’s coming together," said Mayfield of his team. "We are about ready to gel and just in time with just a couple of league games left. We’re unscored on in league play and we’re averaging 28 points per game. In the preseason, Clairemont and Crawford were picked to be contenders. Homecoming is a wonderful football celebration. It’s a big week. I hope we enjoy it and don’t get distracted by it. We seem to pump Homecoming at Coronado High School up more each year."

Last Friday, the Islanders Boys Water Polo Team was confronted with a strong case of déjà vu, as they returned to their home away from home for the past 2 years, the Coggan Family Pool on the campus of La Jolla High School. The Islanders emerged with a 10-6 Western League victory over the Vikings. La Jolla, due perhaps to the interest generated in the school’s aquatics program by the on-campus facility, seems poised to join Coronado and Bishop’s atop the pantheon of the county’s water polo powers.

Coronado Head Coach Randy Burgess knows that even though his team defeated La Jolla 13-8 in the first round of Western League play Sept. 30, and then again last week, that a stronger effort from the Islanders may be necessary the next time the teams meet. "We played pretty consistently versus La Jolla, but we didn’t compete with as much intensity as we will need if we play them in the playoffs."

Sean Castillo led the Coronado scoring attack with four goals, followed by Jesse Farquhar with three, and Preston Lujan with two tallies. John Landon added a goal and three assists to the Islanders offensive production.

Despite the strong offensive showing, Burgess singled out senior goalie and the team’s last line of defense, Patrick Queisser as the Islander’s player of the game. "Patrick played his best game of the season. He finished with eight saves, three steals and two assists. He was very active in goal."

Saturday Coronado took to the road with a trip to Long Beach Wilson, one of the state’s water polo power houses, year in and year out. The Islanders fell 12-8. "We ran in to a very, very good Long Beach Wilson team. We didn’t do a good job with ball control in the second quarter and were outscored 5-1. We were down 9-3 at halftime, but played them relatively even for the rest of the game."

Devin Farrell and Farquhar each scored twice, with single goals contributed by Eric Clapper, Castillo, Lujan and Landon. Burgess noted the fine play of Farrell and Clapper. "Two key players in the Long Beach game, who didn’t get a lot of big stats, were Devin and Eric. Farrell had four steals in the game and Clapper was very active drawing three exclusions. Both of them had a goal and did some good things."

This coming week the Islanders have a busy schedule, starting Tuesday with a game against University City at the La Jolla Jewish Community Center, followed by a home match Wednesday against Cathedral Catholic at the Coronado Municipal Pool. Thursday the team travels to San Francisco for a game against Burlingame High School and then starts play Friday in the TruWest California State Invitational in San Jose against Clovis West High School. The team will play a total of seven games this week.

A loss last week to Our Lady of Peace 25-16, 25-19 and 25-19 prompted Girls Volleyball Head Coach Phil Trotter to tinker with his starting lineup. The squad’s most versatile player Megan Mushovic has moved from setter to libero (defensive specialist) to outside hitter in a three-week period.

"I wouldn’t normally switch the lineup around this late in the season," Trotter said. "Moving Megan to outside hitter has made us play better. She is getting more touches, which leads to our serving better, playing better defense and it allows us to play with a better sense of rhythm."

A necessary ingredient in making the lineup change is having someone to assume the responsibilities inherent in the setter position, now being ably handled by Karli Massie. "Karli has been doing a very good job as a setter," Trotter said. "She’s a junior, which will help us next year."

Fortified by the new lineup, the Islanders dismantled Mission Bay Wednesday by the scores of 25-11, 21-25, 25-5 and 25-6. Trotter praised several of his players. "Both of our middles Caitlin Kennedy and Kelsey Fitzgerald have been playing well and Christy Mebust is playing well at outside hitter. Kelly Phelps has also taken over some matches for us. We’re looking for her leadership to help us in the next couple of weeks."

This week Trotter has scheduled University City for a Monday home match, a team that Coronado played earlier in the season. "They’re good," said Trotter of the Centurions. "We lost to them 15-12 in the third game of a tournament. Homecoming at Coronado is such a big deal, that I kind of made this a bye week. The following week we have three games right in a row."

Playing in the tough Western League, tennis victories are sometimes hard to come by. Measuring a team’s improvement often is reflected by the second round of matches played against a league opponent. Head Girls Tennis Coach Robbin Adair checks in with his report.

"It was a good week and we played really well. We opened Tuesday against Scripps Ranch. Earlier in the season they beat us 16-3 at their place. This time we lost on a game count. In singles, Allie Gordon and Nicole Aponte both won two out of three of their sets, and Lorena Hernandez won one. In doubles Spencer Berman and Jan Carney took two of three, as did Hayley Kitzmiller and Alicia Ruiz.

That brought the score to 9-9 and then on the game count, they beat us 78-70. All three singles players played very well. Berman/Caney lost their set to their No. 1 team 7-5. They had a lead of 4-3 but couldn’t hold it. That Scripps Ranch doubles team has not lost a set all season.

Thursday we hosted OLP. They had beaten us 17-1 in the first round. They have the No. 4 ranked team in Division III this year and we played them really great. We lost 16-2, but 11 of those sets were decided by scores of 6-4 or 7-5. Winning our two points were Aponte in singles and Berman/Carney in doubles.

This coming week we play Mission Bay Monday at Coronado, travel to La Jolla Tuesday, and then to University City Wednesday. Next week the CIF Team playoffs start and I anticipate that in Division III we will be seeded somewhere in the 6-9 range."

CHS Cross Country Head Coach George Green recaps last week’s harrier action. "The Girls Cross Country Team lost to Christian by one point last Wednesday in a dual meet at Lindo Lake that could have gone either way, up to the last runner. In a time span of only 41 seconds, four Coronado and four Christian girls crossed the finish line, led by Islander Marissa Nagler with a time of 15:00 over the 2.15-mile girls’ course.

Karolin Ivarsson was third in 15:08, followed by Sheila Braun (sixth in 15:13), Anneke Nelson (eighth in 14:41), Sarah Player (10^th in 16:19), Allison Cabana (12^th in 16:56) and Helen Luppi (13^th in 16:59). This was a meet we would have won had we been at full strength. We were missing a couple of key girls due to injury and schedule conflicts.

The loss drops the Islander girls to a record of 2-1 with only one meet with Crawford Nov. 2 remaining on the regular season schedule. Crawford, Madison and Clairemont all have 1-2 records, but the latter two have stronger teams than their records reflect. They have also had scheduling conflicts and illness among their ranks.

Christian had a bye week last week and stands at 2-0 with tough meets with both Clairemont and Madison coming up. The bottom line is that the Central League (formerly the Harbor League) team champion for girls won’t be clinched until the final meet of the season, and Coronado is still very much in the running (Ed. Note – I’m hoping that wasn’t a pun).

The Boys Cross Country Team won easily by the score of 17-44 to extend their record to 3-0. Ben Enowitz led the Islander procession in 18:07 over the 3.1-mile boy’s course. He was followed by Michael Davies (second in 18:23), Jack Harms (third in 18:55); David Grimes (fifth in 19:08), Andrew Falkiewicz (sixth in 19:36), Jose Tijerina (eighth in 19:44) Cotter Stacy (ninth in 19:51), Ben Green (17^th), Gonzalo Arozarena (20^th), Ross Palmer (21^st) and Scott Wittry (24^th). Barring injury, the Islanders should clinch the Central League championship in their meet with Crawford Nov. 2.

Friday the Boys Varsity squad ran in the High School Division IV races at the Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) Cross Country Invitational. With 16,000 registered runners, this series of races is one of the largest in the world and features three tough hills over a course just shy of 3 miles. Coronado placed seventh out of the 25 schools in their race, with Enowitz taking fifth with a time of 16:54. He was followed by Davies (27^th in 18:12); Grimes (51^st in 18:49), Falkiewicz (62^nd in 19:07), Tijerina (70^th in 19:14), Harms and Stacy.

In CMS action Sunday, eighth grader Sallie Privett stood on the podium at the Arturo Barrios Invitational with some pretty fast (and famous) company. Her time of 18:30 for the 5K (3.1-mile) course was fast enough to place her third overall in the women’s division of the People’s Race behind UCLA’s best cross country runner, senior Jenna Timinsky and Germany’s Uta Pippig, who once held the indoor world record for the 5K and was a three time winner of the Boston Marathon (1994-96). Of course Sallie also won the 13-17 age division, as well as running shoes and a lot of hardware."

The Chargers 20-17 loss to the Eagles Sunday was tougher to swallow than a bad Philly cheese steak sandwich. Your Natterer was poised to jump on the Chargers band wagon after San Diego reached the .500 mark with a solid victory last week over the Oakland Raiders. However, sanity prevailed.

The Chargers faced several problems simultaneously last week. First, Philadelphia was coming off of their bye week. If you give a veteran NFL defensive coordinator 150 hours or so to study game film on one team, believe me they will find a way to stop your best offensive weapon. In this case, Eagles Defensive Coordinator Jim Johnson relegated Chargers star running back LaDainian Tomlinson to the role of a non-factor.

Second, the Chargers schedule is positively brutal in 2005. As the winner of the AFC Western Division in 2004, they face the maximus fortius NFL first place schedule comprised of the other division winners. They also play the teams in their division Denver, Oakland, and Kansas City twice each. Add in four round trips to the East Coast and two more flights to the Midwest and back this season and you get the impression that the NFL schedule maker took it to the Chargers.

Third, the Chargers offensive play calling is suspect when it counts. Coming down the stretch against the Eagles, the Bolts 6-foot, 5-inch, Pro Bowl tight end Antonio Gates, who is a running, breathing mismatch against anyone who attempts to defend him, was conspicuously ignored. Tomlinson gained a total of seven yards in 17 carries against the Eagles. The running game wasn’t working for the Chargers all afternoon long. I got the message and I was 2,500 miles from the scene of the crime.

With a 3-4 record, the Chargers have nine games remaining and need to post a 7-2 record the rest of the way to have a realistic chance of making the playoffs. They face the Kansas City Chiefs twice, the Broncos and Raiders once each and play the NFL’s lone remaining undefeated team, the Indianapolis Colts on the road Sunday, Dec. 18. Here’s hoping the Chargers are still in playoff contention at that point in the season.