For months now, Kevin Ings, Mark Schu and the rest of the La Jolla Country Day varsity football team have had a particular 2006 date circled on their calendars: Nov. 10.
That’s not CIF championship game day, but it’s pretty close. Try the much-anticipated final game of the regular season between the Torreys and H-Town that will decide the champion of the Pacific League, and also largely determine Big Blue’s post-season seeding.
The 7 p.m. kickoff at Country Day will be arguably the biggest since the school christened its slick new field a year ago.
“We know they’re the team to beat,” said Ings, a senior running back and captain who scored two touchdowns and rushed for 198 yards on 23 carries in the Torreys’ 38-0 Homecoming thumping of Calipatria Nov. 3. “I think our schedule worked out perfect.”
No doubt about it, considering earlier this season Ings was sidelined with a hip injury. Without Ings, the Torrey offense flopped in a 6-3 loss at Army-Navy, their only defeat this season. The 5-foot-10, 160-pound Ings averages 168 yards per game, and also contributes on the other side of the ball as a defensive back.
Ings’ ability to run, coupled with sound defense, few penalties and the sure foot of Travis Golia, will likely be the difference against H-Town and the Torreys know it.
“They’re very big and physical; bigger and faster than us,” said Country Day head coach Jeff Hutzler of H-Town. “But we beat them last year because we out-disciplined them.”
Added Schu, a senior tight end/defensive end: “We’re tight as a family and count on the person next to us to get the job done.”
Against Calipatria, the Torreys defense didn’t allow the Hornets to get much of anything done in recording a convincing shutout. Although bigger physically and deeper in numbers than Calipatria, the visitors still came into Country Day averaging more than 300 yards per game on the ground.
“We know (H-Town) is better,” Schu remarked. “When we lost to Army-Navy, they did a really good job of shutting down our running game. We take a lot of pride in our defense.”
Country Day also takes a lot of pride in watching its student-athletes blossom, which they start plenty early. Homecoming reinforced the Torreys football tradition, with the Little Torreys Cheerleaders (kindergarten to fourth grade) forming a victory line as the team took the field. There were also plenty of flag football games going on, from first graders on up to the middle schoolers, plus the junior varsity tilt.
Gone are the days of eight-man Torrey football, but Ings is not alone in performing double duty, joined by fellow senior captains Alex Yanez, Nikil Nagaraj and Jamie Coleman. Coleman has been injured but hopes to be in the lineup against H-Town. The club boasts 11 seniors in total, and 11-man football means this graduating class has one last potential opportunity at going out on top in a CIF bout at Qualcomm Stadium. When Ings, Schu and the Torreys won it all in 2004, the game was played at Mesa College.
“As a senior, every game you think about it,” Ings said. “Like (this) was our last homecoming.”
This Friday, Nov. 10 is their next game, the showdown of the season at home against H-Town. Should it be a nail-biter to the end, the difference maker could be the foot of Golia, a junior kicker who has Division I college scouts practically drooling.
Against Calipatria, the 6-foot, 175-pound Golia booted field goals from 48 and 53 yards, the latter tying the county and his own personal best for this season.
“The kick is good and let’s hope it doesn’t hit the taco stand, which is open by the way,” quipped the Torreys public address announcer against Calipatria.
Following its whupping of the Hornets, Golia was off to the University of Michigan for a recruiting trip to that other Big Blue hoping to win a championship. But he’ll be in Torreys blue Nov. 10, and he and his teammates hope a lot of students and fans will be in the seats.
Said Hutzler: “It’s going to be like a playoff game before the playoffs start.”
In other Country Day homecoming news, Kate Lawson was named Homecoming Queen and Schu the Homecoming King “¦ Hutzler, also the Country Day athletic director, said Greg Hirschman has committed to play tennis at Stanford and Timmy Sedwitz will play soccer at Princeton, both Division I schools.