Falcons look out of sync in loss to Burroughs, putting them in a hole in Pacific League

By Brandon HENSLEY

No one knows which Crescenta Valley Falcons football team is going to show up each week, and at this point in the season, that’s not what needs to be going on.

The 2012 campaign is more than half over, and the Falcons sit at 3-3. They have yet to win more than two games in a row; consistently inconsistent, as the saying goes.

On their Oct. 2 game against Burroughs, the Falcons struggled to move the ball on offense, and a late rally came up short as they fell to the Indians 20-14, which dropped them to 1-2 in the Pacific League.

“We didn’t play well offensively. We couldn’t move the ball,” said Coach Paul Schilling.

It wasn’t pretty. CV lost two fumbles, mishandled several other snaps and kickoffs, and failed to score for three quarters. The Falcons were playing their first game without wide receiver Jack Lutynski, who has a small tear in his left MCL and is expected to be out a month.

Once again, junior quarterback Joe Torres played the entire game, like he did in the previous win over Pasadena. Schilling said the other starting quarterback, Ben Rees, was still recovering from various ailments.

“He’s still not himself,” Schilling said.

Torres completed eight passes, while looking shaky most of the time. Down 20-0, he got his team in gear and led two scoring drives in the fourth quarter, one of which resulted in a William Wang 36-yard run, the other a 12-yard pass from Torres to Kyle Tavizon with six seconds remaining. The ensuing onside kick was recovered by Burroughs.

Burroughs came into the game 1-4 and not exactly a high-powered machine, but Schilling said the lack of offense on CV’s side helped them just enough.

“Offensively, they don’t move the ball well either, and so [their defense] kept them in the game long enough and they made a couple plays.”

The Falcons sacked Burroughs quarterback Andrew Williams five times and defensively CV was up to the challenge most of the night. Williams was able to complete passes underneath to his receivers for sizable gains, but the Indians weren’t setting fire to the scoreboard; it was only 7-0 after one quarter.

In fact the longest drive the Indians had – 13 plays – ended in two consecutive sacks by CV to stymie the drive. What the Falcons did give up, though, were a couple of big runs Williams ripped off when coverage was good. The biggest play of the game was an 87-yard run by Williams to CV’s 4-yard-line in the fourth quarter with the Falcons trailing 13-0.

“It was a killer. Killer,” said Schilling.

“He just made things happens,” said defensive back Chad Eggertson. “We lost a little contain … we did well. We stopped their counter [attack], they just made two or three big broken plays.”

Without Lutynski, Torres favored receivers Tavizon and Connor Van Ginkel. But Lutynski was the biggest threat – literally – for CV, and the Falcons are now having to move the ball with less intimidating size. CV has scored less than 17 points for three straight games.

“Jack’s our big play threat. You can throw it up for grabs and he’ll go make a play,” said Schilling.

It doesn’t help the offense that Eggertson, who is an athletic 6-feet-1, has been removed as receiver and has been put on defense fulltime, so he can spend more energy on that side of the ball.

“When I go one way, I’m a hundred times better on defense,” Eggertson said. “I want to get in there and play as much as I can.”

It’s certainly helping the defense – Eggertson has been dominating recently – but that will only put more pressure on Torres or Rees the rest of the way.

“Every game, this is how our season’s gone,” said Schilling. “We play a good game, we think we’re going to come back, we’re confident, we feel good, and then we don’t do what we’re supposed to do.”

Upcoming
The Falcons are currently fifth in the eight-team Pacific League. While upcoming games with Glendale Hoover should be favorable for them, they have to travel to Burbank on Friday for a 7 p.m. contest with the Bulldogs, who are 4-2, and 2-0 in league.

“They’re good. They’re really good,” said Schilling.

Eggertson was confident his team can turn things around. He said CV is familiar with Burbank’s Wing-T offense, which is mainly designed to be a run-oriented, ball-control offense.

“In the past, we’ve shut them down offensively. We learned their schemes real quick,” he said.

Other Pacific League Scores, Oct. 5
Muir 37, Glendale 0
Arcadia 49, Hoover 6
Burbank 34, Pasadena 8

  Brandon Hensley, Ed HAMILTON