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2005 CIF Champions (11-3)
Sitting in his garage Sunday Cabrillo football coach Don Cross worked on Christmas lights instead of game plans. The Conquistador season which ended Friday night in a 54-39 titanic struggle with Crespi marked the first time in nine years the Conqs reached the CIF semifinals, or defeated Lompoc in the Big Game, or won a share of a league title. The Conqs posted a 10-3 record. “Crespi had a little too much for us,” Cross summarized. “In the fourth quarter they made a few more plays. They got a turnover on an interception, No.3 (D.J. Holt) showed great effort breaking tackles. “And that's a turnaround for us. We're usually the fourth quarter team.” With four minutes gone in the fourth quarter Cabrillo led 39-33 but Holt, a blue chip college prospect someday at 6-2 and 235 pounds but now still a junior, made a play that will live forever on Crespi video. Taking a screen pass left he burst out of a tackle by Vai Taua, then scattered Cabrillo defensive backs like bowling pins along the Conqs' sideline to cover 41 yards for a touchdown. The Celts scored twice more in the next three minutes as running back Josh Morgan ran in from 60 and then 25 yards. “I think Morgan won the ballgame for them,” Cross said of the senior who both pounded up the middle and danced outside to amass a stunning 340 yards. Cross was asked how much of the Celts' nearly 700 yards total offense was attributable to missed tackles and how much to hard running by Morgan and Holt. “It was a combination. In the first quarter we were definitely missing tackles. We had guys running by the ball carrier and then having to arm tackle. Late in the game once we settled down it was real hard running.” On offense Taua and Simmons were able to move the ball against the Celt defense. Taua totaled 135 yards running inside and out. Simmons ran the option to the outside and gained 127. Cross credited deceptive ballhandling by Simmons, and effective downfield blocking by running backs and receivers. “Everybody knows what we're going to do,” Cross laughed. “They filmed us for four or five weeks.” Simmons' rapid development at quarterback was one of the highlights of the season, he added. Simmons, a junior, had never played the position. “It was definitely the plan to get C.J. under center. I told him in the spring I was going to move him to quarterback. “He said, ‘Really?' “I said, ‘We're going to be an option team.” He never questioned it. He just said, ‘OK coach, what do you want me to do?' “It got rushed when Sean (McGinty) went down. Sean got hurt in the first possession of the season. C.J. finished the opening drive with a 20-yard option run for a touchdown. He came off with a big smile as if to say ‘Hey, I can do this.' “Next year he's going to be lethal.” Another key moment in the season came in the fifth week in a 43-35 loss at Atascadero, Cross said. “Atascadero was a confidence builder even though we lost it. Atascadero was a Big-5 playoff team so it was a big game. We just played Atascadero to the wire in a physical game. I know I came out feeling we could play with anybody.” Two seniors, Taua and fullback/linemen Steve De St. Jean, were key to the program's growth since Cross arrived at Cabrillo in 2003, the coach added. “They were with me at the beginning when we weren't very good. Those two guys are winners. I knew with those two guys we'd turn the corner in a hurry. Those two and (now graduated) Lydell (Sargeant).” Though preoccupied with Christmas at the moment, Cross is almost ready to start the new season. “Not an hour after the game Josh Sanders asked me, ‘Coach, are we going to start lifting weights on Monday?' And (Mike) Riewaldt and (Jacob) Farley were there too. When you have guys saying that, it won't take me long to recharge my batteries.” Cross said that at times on defense in the second half he had three sophomores (Josh Crispin, Greg Watson, and Benny Garrett) and a freshman (Matt Rotondi) on the field. And the title game between Lompoc and Crespi? “I think Lompoc has a chance to beat them but I think it will be a shootout. “The secret is finding the right matchups. (Holt) is so big you've got to find the right guy to cover him one-on-one.” On offense Cross imagines Lompoc's Joseph Scott skittering to the outside much as Simmons did, and quarterback Tim Ochoa running the option and throwing to Johnathon Terrones. “Terrones is going to cause a mismatch if they use the same guys there. But even though he's a defensive end they might take Holt and say, ‘Go cover No.7.'” |