By Fred Altieri
Observer Reporter
The inviting nights of a cooling autumn were still just around the corner when the undefeated San Pedro High football team visited Jerry Chabola Stadium at Culver City High on Friday, September 19.
But the scoring was still hot as both teams meeting for the first time combined for seven touchdowns, seven extra-point kicks and one field goal each as the #3 city-ranked Pirates held off the host Centaurs and a fourth quarter comeback for a 38-17 victory.
The game was Culver’s third of five preseason contests designed to condition and prepare the team to defend its Ocean League title in a few weeks.
Head coach Jahmal Wright: “San Pedro was a formidable opponent that I thought we needed to face, a tough, hard-nosed opponent to get ready for the most important part of the season which is the league season.
“Our focus was: offensively, not turning the ball over and executing and defensively, our focus was trying to match their physicality, to tackle and find a way to force turnovers to get the ball back to the offense.”
San Pedro took the initial lead with a 73-yard pass play for a touchdown along the left sideline. Coach Wright acknowledged a defensive lapse contributed: “I thought San Pedro did a good job early of taking advantage of our miscues. We had a blown coverage. Against a solid, well-coached team, we can’t make those mistakes. If the defensive back makes a mistake it’s always a huge mistake and it ends up being costly.”
The Pirates added a 25-yard field goal for a 10-0 first quarter lead. The Centaurs responded by inserting Quintorius Truitt at quarterback from the second quarter on. Several drives came up empty but the offense was showing life. Truitt finished the game with nine completions for 58 yards and only one interception in 22 attempts.
Wright saw progress in Truitt: “I thought Quintorius did a good job of managing the offense. I hope we’ll be able to expand what we’re doing with him in the passing game. We want him to be successful so we’re picking and choosing the spots where he can read the field. The more comfortable he gets in the offense we’ll start adding to his workload. We’re going to give him just as much as he can handle right now.”
A defensive penalty in Pirate territory denied the Centaurs a chance to pull within a few points in the second quarter. Coach Wright: “That was a crucial play because we had them backed up. Anthony Caiseros kicked an excellent punt that got downed on the one-yard line. We were able to force them to punt but it was all for naught because one of our defensive linemen lined up in the neutral zone. We just have to find a way stop shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Inevitably, San Pedro moved swiftly in its next series and scored a touchdown for a 17-0 lead just before halftime. Culver City’s defense came out firing on all cylinders in the third quarter. A couple of fine defensive stops gave their offense room and opportunity to strike. But once again an apparently well-executed 27-yard touchdown pass and run from Truitt to Jason Grossman was called back due to a penalty.
Caiseros was able to salvage a 27-yard field goal a few plays later to cut the lead to 17-3. Coach Wright hopes to incorporate his kicker with added frequency: “Tony has a lot of experience. He’s a weapon that we’re going to definitely try to get more involved in our game plan.”
San Pedro retaliated with a 17-yard touchdown run minutes before the third quarter ended and a 24-3 lead.
The Centaurs were reinvigorated during the fourth quarter for the second consecutive game. Not surprisingly it was Donavan Davis who provided the spark. With the Pirates threatening to blow the game wide open deep, a fumble and a 94-yard Davis recovery and sprint along the eastern sideline cut the lead once more to within two scores at 24-10 with 10:18 remaining
Wright described the bang-bang play: “Our safety, Justin Manyweather, did an excellent job of putting his helmet on the football when he made the tackle. Donovan happened to be in the right place at the right time. We have that turf now so the ball took a nice, friendly bounce into his arms and we were able to score out of that.
“Donovan is one of our most explosive players and we’re trying to find creative ways to get him the ball. It seems when the ball is in his hands good things are happening for us. Moving forward we definitely want to make sure he’s getting some touches because all he needs is a little crease and he’ll go the distance.”
However, the Pirates did not succumb to the pressure when the Centaur defense stopped them on their next drive. They were able to get an interception and a touchdown after pinning Culver near their own end zone with 5:09 remaining. Then after stopping Culver on a fourth down pass San Pedro marched for another score and a 38-10 lead.
The Centaurs had one last moment when Cahlil Hooper busted up the middle for a 32-yard scoring run. The coaching staff gave him the late game chance to shine: “Kahlil is a player that came to us a little late in the summer. He has a great attitude and is very talented. He’s only a junior and the more he picks up in his game we can get him a little more involved in the offense. But he’s a talented young man that is working hard. We thought we would give him a shot and he took advantage of it.”
As Culver City football prepares for its final two preseason tests Coach Wright is looking forward: “Defensively, I see good things and I see things that we need to work on. It’s a process. Definitely from the first game to the third game we’re seeing improvement.
“I thought we did a pretty good job of cutting down our turnovers. We only had one turnover even though it was a costly one. It was a two-score game when we gave up that pick-six.
We have a ways to go but we’re going to get there. We’re just going to keep plugging, keep working on our technique and become more sound in our execution and game plan. We’re going to be alright.”
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