Kaiser football’s opponent’s decision: tie or win?

Last week, Kaiser settled for a 15-15 tie with Downey Warren, but not by its own choice.
Here’s the situation as told to me from Kaiser coach Phil Zelaya:
Warren scored the game’s first touchdown and went for 2 to go up 8-0. Kaiser answered and also went for 2 to tie the score, 8-8.
Then Kaiser scored again, this time kicked the extra point to go up 15-8. Warren answered right back and quickly went down the field to score a touchdown with about 25 seconds left.
“It looked like they were going to go for 2,” Zelaya said.
It was big Warren crowd, a “White Out” night for the fans and coach Raul Lara, the former coach at Long Beach Poly decided to kick the extra point. It was successful and the game finished in the tie although Kaiser nearly had a chance to win in the final seconds.
Some preseason games have overtime, by mutual agreement from coaches, but most do not. Coaches want to play 48 minutes, but don’t see the need to play extra time, risking injury, in a game that likely has no bearing on whether or not they make the playoffs.
So what would Zelaya have done?
“I would’ve gone for 2,” he said.
Yes, a tie is better than a loss. But don’t you want your team to see you’re willing to go for it? I would’ve gone for the win, too.

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Final thoughts on Kaiser/Colony

Sometimes, I cover a game, and it’s so entertaining a game that there’s more I want to get to than I can possibly mention in a story. Such was the Kaiser/Colony football game on Friday, won by Colony 23-19.

Some thoughts:

  • Each team scored 3 touchdowns and there were no other scores. Kaiser had its first PAT blocked, went for 2 on the second and failed, then kicked the third. Colony kicked the first, then went for 2 and made it on the second and third touchdowns.
  • The math wouldn’t indicate it, but Colony made the right move going for 2 on its final touchdown. Usually, you go for 2 late in a game when a TD puts you up 1, 4 or 5, but in this case, it put the Titans up 21-19. Going for 2 had more to do with Kaiser. Kaiser had attempted just one FG all year, and missed it. So going up 3 would’ve meant little in this game. But going up 4 would’ve been helpful because if Kaiser came back to score a TD and kicked an XP, Colony could’ve tied with a FG.
  • Kaiser’s drives ended with: Downs, lost fumble, TD, TD, halftime, punt, TD, downs/INT. Just one punt for the Cats. Kaiser ran more plays on its first drive 19 than Colony had in the first half (12). Colony had 3 drives end after just 1 play: 2 TDs, and one lost a fumble. Kaiser had six drives end in Colony territory.
  • On Kaiser’s opening drive, they appeared to be getting a first-and-goal at the Colony 9 as Colony was being called for pass interference on fourth-and-15 at the 19. But Kaiser also got a penalty for illegal man downfield. The down was replayed on the offsetting fouls and Kaiser failed to convert the 4th-and-15  the second time.

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Prep Football Roundup for Sept. 24

KAISER 48, APPLE VALLEY 42>> If anybody left Malloy Stadium on the Kaiser High School campus early, they missed a furious fourth quarter that saw the host Cats hold on and score a 48-42 win over Apple Valley after building a 21-point margin in the fourth quarter. The Cats (3-1) also had a 48-27 advantage in the fourth before Apple Valley (2-3) got back in the game on the strength of a pair of 33-yard runs by Tristian Mcnatt. One set up a fourth-down score by T.J. Lewis and Mcnatt scored his fourth TD of the night after the Sun Devils recovered an onsides kick.Mcnatt, who finished with 147 yards in nine carries, also caught a two-point conversion pass from Mossy Bell to make it exciting with 2:42 left. But the Cats killed the clock, thanks to a 11-yard carry by Tyler Allgeier for a first down with 131 left. He and Joshua Johnson were the big offensive keys for Kaiser as Johnson scored three times and rushed for 194 on 25 carries on the night late in the third quarter.

Continue reading “Prep Football Roundup for Sept. 24” »

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Kaiser football heads into new season with higher expectations

A CIF championship in 2012. A semifinal appearance in 2013. A 45-14 first-round playoff loss in 2014.

Which of these is not like the other?

Kaiser’s ears are still ringing from the “wake-up call” it received eight months ago. The Cats’ run a proud football program, something regularly reflected on the scoreboard. Blowout losses are uncommon, even less common in the postseason, where Kaiser strung together a successful five-year run including 11 playoff wins – prior to last season.

AR-141029608“That first-round loss was bothersome,” Kaiser coach Phil Zelaya said. “The players haven’t forgotten about that. But it says a lot about where we’re at against these new teams. All three teams from our league were out in the first round. That’ll tell you something about the competition.” Continue reading “Kaiser football heads into new season with higher expectations” »

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