By Fred Altieri
Observer Reporter
Refreshing. Cleansing. The Culver City varsity football team savored the moist precipitous air and instantaneously swept away a season of doubt and loss. Soon afterward, a rare Friday night rain in late October fell upon the drought-ridden South Bay basin and soaked into the predawn hours of early November.
An unfulfilled but resolute Centaur squad bused a good dozen exits down the 405 Freeway to Hawthorne High to secure its first victory of the 2014 season, 35-10.
Culver employed a renewed ground attack to wear down the Cougar defense, scoring in all four quarters with two door-slamming touchdowns coming in the fourth that further dampened Hawthorne's homecoming game.
Head coach Jahmal Wright on the team's offense: "Our intent this game was to make a concerted effort to run the football and run with some authority and fire. So we wanted to put the ball in Donovan Davis' hands as much as we could."
Culver struck early as quarterback Anthony Polk guided a rushing offense, setting up his 13-yard run with a team pile-driving burst up the middle for a touchdown at 6:20 in the first quarter.
Coach Wright: "I thought Anthony Polk did a real good job of being a leader, running the offense and running the ball as well. We thought we had an advantage up front so we stuck with it."
Tony Caiseros kicked the extra-point for a 7-0 lead. Caiseros converted on all five of his extra-point attempts in the game. He also boomed over a 65-yard punt late in the first quarter that pinned Hawthorne near its own goal line. Subsequently, the Cougars found it difficult to move the ball against a stingy Centaur defense in a battle for the fourth position in the Ocean League standings.
Ten minutes later Polk threw a screen-pass to Donovan who deftly maneuvered four tackles for a book-end 13-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead with 8:13 on the clock before halftime. Davis led the team with three pass receptions for 21 yards.
Culver then appeared to have recovered a fumbled kickoff return by the Cougars but were denied by the referees' interpretation of the rules. Minutes later a bad hike from center sailed over Caiseros waiting to punt the ball from deep in Centaur territory. Thinking quickly, he kicked the ball through the back of the end zone to allow Hawthorne only two points for the safety minutes before the half ended.
Coach Wright allowed: "When we devised our game plan our philosophy was to be a downhill smash-mouth team. We had the confidence in the offensive line. They went out and used great technique. They had some enthusiasm and success. We were able to ride that wave the whole game."
The Centaur offensive front line responded with effective blocking as Polk continued to push the running game into the third quarter. Minutes later they sprung Davis outside left who juked and outsprinted five defensive backs down the sideline for a 39-yard touchdown run and a 21-2 lead.
Davis, Polk, Fred Poindexter and Cahlil Hooper combined for a punishing rushing game with each gaining 121, 114, 64 and 55 yards respectively. Evan Tillman also had a nice end-around during their third touchdown drive. Polk also completed four of seven passes for 31 yards and Poindexter caught one pass for ten yards.
The Centaur defense never let up its intensity throughout while only allowing Hawthorne less than 150 total yards from scrimmage for the game. Wright was pleased with the effort:
"I think our defense has been solid in the beginning of games. We wore down as the games were going on this season. But in this game we were able to keep up our defensive execution because of the success our offense was having. It goes to show that when you have both sides of the ball in rhythm good things happen."
Senior linebacker Simon Valenzuela has been instrumental to the Culver defense according to Wright: "He is definitely my extended voice on the field. Simon has had that role the whole season. He leads by example and he leads by his play. He's definitely a defensive leader on the team."
The Centaurs once again scored in the fourth quarter as they had done for the first six games of the year. Poindexter punched one into the end zone for a 28-2 lead with 9:07 left.
At 5:08 Hooper rammed home their fifth touchdown up the middle behind a determined front line and a 35-2 lead.
"It's a breath of fresh air to come out and to have both the offense and the defense clicking. As coaches, that's what we envisioned happening more often during the season. But I was happy to how things came together."
Hawthorne had one last fleeting moment for its homecoming crowd when it completed a pass to the left corner of the end zone capped off with a two-point conversion with minutes to go in the game.
The Culver win gives them the opportunity to finish the season on a high note going into the final game this Friday at Beverly Hills High.
Coach Wright concluded: "We've faced adversity and some tough times this season. I was happy for the guys to come out here and to keep fighting and keeping a positive attitude, to making the plays to win the game. Our goal is to send our seniors out in their last game with a victory and to create some momentum moving forward."
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