The biggest ‘surprise’ of the weekend didn’t come from Arizona. Rather, it was the Pacific West Football League’s decision to replace the Surprise (Arizona) Flying Dutchmen with the SoCal Elite, less than 24 hours prior to kickoff.
But once the first annual Catalina Kickoff Classic was underway here on the historic, legendary island — 26 miles off the shores of Los Angeles — who the opponent was didn’t matter to the reigning league-champion SoCal Coyotes or their familiar All-American stars.
It was merely another day at the office.
Against a 27-man Elite roster made up largely of Division I talent, the Coyotes systematically dismantled them and wasted little time in proving why they are the pride of Southern California, the league, and their fans around the world.
With dew falling along with 48-degree temperatures, quarterback Nate Lewis — AAA football’s National Player of the Year — went to work in the Coyotes famed Run ‘n’ Shoot offense, dissecting the Elite defense with pinpoint passes, while S-back David “The Diesel” Cathcart softened them with punishing runs underneath.
In the first half alone, Lewis completed 17 of 21 passes for 331 yards and four touchdowns, while Cathcart had 21 touches for 134 yards, including pounding long runs of 16, 22 and 35 yards and catches on screens and swing routes totaling 39. His backup, “Big Game” James Allison, was equally impressive in limited playing time.
“It wasn’t just Nate’s sheer numbers alone that impressed me,” said Coyote head coach J. David Miller. “It was how he managed the offense, called the game plan, and executed the first half as a whole body of work that was mind-blowing.”
Lewis found receiver and fan-favorite Rashad ‘Mr. Mayor’ Roberts six times in the first half, for completions of 12, 16, 13, and 19. But it was his two long touchdowns that electrified the crowd and the Coyote sidelines.
Against the Elite’s base Cover Two defense, Lewis checked down to the X Go, and Roberts, well, went. The quarterback and receiver synced perfectly on a tight spiral that traveled 55 yards in the air, and Roberts outraced the Elite defense the rest of the way for a 67-yard score.
Near the end of the first half, Lewis — masterfully calling the offense from the shotgun at the line — called the 55 hook/corner out of a two-by-two set, and Roberts curled up at 18 yards, made the catch, wove through five defensemen and sprinted 53 yards to pay dirt.
Slotback Josh “The Flying Hawaiian” Asuncion caught five balls for 88 yards in the first half, including a spectacular 90 Switch, over-the-shoulder touchdown that Lewis spun from 46 yards away, dropping the ball perfectly just feet from a diving, outstretched defender.
“The triplets — Nate, Diesel and Shad — are pretty tough to defense once they get untracked,” Miller said. “But that catch Josh made was nothing short of brilliant. Perfect throw, perfect catch. That was indefensible, no matter who you are.”
Speed-burner Mondo Delgado, the newest Coyote slotback and former Colorado All-Star, thrilled fans with a 15-yard arrow route where he blazed and spun through diving tacklers before laying out horizontal to the pylon for Lewis’s fourth touchdown of the night.
Lewis scattered four more completions for 56 yards among three other different receivers before the first half mercifully ended with the Coyotes leading, 38-0.
“You have your foot on their throats,” said assistant coach Wayne Anderson Jr. at the half. “Don’t let them up. Don’t let them breathe. Don’t let them back in this game.”
Led by defensive end Mike Erwin and linebacker Reggie Hines, the Coyote Chaos defense played magnificent, punishing Elite runners and harassing their quarterback with sacks and pressures. Four times the Elite were stopped for losses or no gain, and twice they turned the ball over, with Erwin also recovering one of those fumbles.
“Mike played a complete game,” said Anderson.
When the second half resumed, surprisingly, Miller did something he’s not prone to do: Take his foot off the gas, lifting most of his starters in favor of waves of new, rookie Coyotes, including backup quarterback Travis Russell in relief of Lewis.
“I’ve always been taught by my mentors — Mouse Davis, June Jones, Jerry Glanville — that it’s the other team’s job to stop you, not your job,” Miller said. “If I was losing a game 150-0, I’d never threaten to take my team off the field. We’d play and fight to the last whistle, with our last breath, and with every drop of blood. But we have so many new players who need game experience, and the score was so lopsided, that it seemed like the right thing to do,” he added. Miller’s decision gave many young players the opportunity to shine, as the Coyotes emptied their bench down to third-string players.
Backup running back Bryan “The Pitstop” Garcia slashed in for his first Coyote touchdown on a 32 Dallas call from four yards out. Wide receiver Layton “Dynamite” Matthews made significant strides. SLotbacks Will Fisher and Cyle Tisdale played well.
On defense, linemen Jordan Cornell and Cedric Cox were suffocating, while defensive backs Bo Bovain, Alfredo Melendez and Rob Smith smothered Elite receivers. Linebacker Devion Brown showed superior leadership, particularly in calling the defensive fronts, stunts and blitzes. A host of other young linebackers — especially Richard Ortiz Jr., Alex Mendoza — showed great promise.
On special teams, kicker Mark Morocco hit from 37 and 35 yards out, and made all of his extra points. But hulking offensive lineman Jonathon Zazueta stole the show when he raced down on a kickoff and recovered an Elite fumble in the end zone for another Coyote touchdown.
“I think coach should move me to a skill position,” smiled Zazueta, after his first career touchdown. “I like it in the end zone. Let’s do that again.”
The Coyotes converted three two-point conversions. Russell scored on a keeper for one, but the best was another from the magical Mondo Delgado, who also holds on field goals and extra points. Plucking a bad snap off the ground, Delgado leaped to his feet, pirouetted two tacklers, then danced untouched into the end zone.
The Coyotes improved to 1-0 on the season, and are now 11-2 in 2012. The two losses were by a total of four points.
Lewis’s assault on the record books is impressive: Counting the National All-Star game in November, where he earned Player of the Game honors, the quarterback has now thrown for 682 yards and seven touchdowns in his last six quarters of work.
“We don’t care who we play,” he said. “It doesn’t mean anything to us if they’ve been together a week or 10 years. In this offense, we are playing against space, and ourselves. If we execute like we did tonight, we can’t be stopped.”
The City of Avalon and Catalina Island rolled out the red carpet for the Coyotes, who were the ‘home’ team in the first pro football game of any kind in the history of the island. The team enjoyed it’s first ‘Coyote Walk’ prior to kickoff, walking in uniform through downtown before being transported to Joe Michado Stadium.
Several restaurants — Coyote Joe’s and the Lobster Trap — treated the team to special pre- and post-game Coyote menus, and twice the Coyotes were featured stories in the local press over a three-day period. Avalon High School Head Coach Earl Schrader and city official Jennifer Lavelle played key roles in making the game an overwhelming success for both the Coyotes and Catalina.
“I am so proud of our young men,” said Miller. “Winning on the road, against tremendous adversity, is a huge sign of maturity in an organization. We played well, we played deep, we played without incident. We performed with class and the players were tremendous ambassadors of our program and the entire Coachella Valley.”
Evidence of that is the City of Avalon has already invited the Coyotes back for 2013.
For fans of the Coyotes, that comes as no surprise.
For more information on the SoCal Coyotes, email socalcoyotes@gmail.com, or call 727.348.6060.
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