Rancho QB Watson to play through leg injury
Reigning CIF-SS Central Division MVP Greg Watson will likely not be 100 percent when his Rancho Cucamonga High School football team takes on Glendora in Friday's first round of the playoffs, but the quarterback of the defending CIF champs will play, according to Cougars head coach Nick Baiz.
"He's fine," Baiz said. "He's good to go."
Watson suffered a leg injury when he was dragged down from behind with eight minutes left in Rancho Cucamonga's eventual 27-24 overtime loss to Etiwanda last Thursday, after which he didn't return to the game. I saw the play in question and it was clear that Watson's legs buckled awkwardly as he was horse-collared. He limped off the field and spent a good portion of the rest of the game on the trainers table before watching the rest of the game from the sidelines.
Baiz preferred not to elaborate beyond calling it a leg injury. "Let's just leave it at that," he said. "I'd tell you but I don't want to tell 1,000 people."
If Watson's running ability is severly hampered, the Cougars could be in trouble. Baiz maintained all season Rancho is a running team. (Though, lucky for Rancho in its current circumstance, the stats say their offensive attack is almost a perfect run-pass balance.)
Watson has passed for 2,002 yards and the Cougars have rushed for 2,069 this season. Running back Michael Boyd is responsible for 1,240 of those yards on the ground while Watson has just 562, a number that may not jolt you out of your seat. But in Rancho's zone-read running scheme, the threat of Watson running is half of his value to the ground game.
If defenses aren't concerned he'll pull the ball out of Boyd's grasp and take it the other direction, the entire running game will suffer. Though Boyd commands the majority of the carries, defenses are afraid to key on him too much for fear of Watson's breakaway speed.
Relying on Watson to pass them to a win is far from a bad circumstance for the Cougars. The guy did throw for 2,600 yards last season and is on a similar pace this year. In the two games I've seen Rancho play this year - the first and last games of the season - Watson hasn't thrown the ball as well as he did last year. Of course, he doesn't have the track stars of last season lining up at receiver. I think Rancho has preferred to run it this year (it has called 338 running plays to 208 passing plays) but not because Watson isn't capable or airing it out.
On Friday, we may find out friday whether Rancho was running it out of necessity or not.
After a 13-0-1 season last year during which it ran through the Baseline League undefeated and beat Upland in the CIF-SS Central Division final, Rancho Cucamonga lost to each of the league's co-champions this season, Los Osos 31-28 and Etiwanda in overtime.
"We're six points from being undefeated," said Baiz, who believes the Cougars would have been one of the top four seeds in the playoffs had it beaten Etiwanda on Thursday. "I think the (Central Division) is similar to how it was last year. I think it's pretty even all the way across."
If Rancho Cucamonga gets past Glendora, a Sierra League tri-champion, it could have No. 1 seed Colton waiting in the quarterfinals.
Leave a comment. Ask a question. Or e-mail me at clay.fowler@inlandnewspapers.com
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About Clay
Clay Fowler has been covering high school sports for six years in California and Texas. He was born in Dallas, attended the University of Texas and worked in Central Texas before joining the Daily Bulletin staff in 2006.
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Coach Baiz,
Where there horses at your game?
Hi,
You are not right. I can defend the position.