Hoping to rebound from an opening night defeat, Culver City High School’s football team faces Peninsula on Friday evening at 7 at Jerry Chabola Stadium.
The Centaurs will try to bounce back after a demoralizing 51-13 defeat at the hands of No. 1-ranked West Torrance.
The good news is the Centaurs have nine games to go, and Peninsula also lost their first game of the season, to North Torrance 34-19.
The bad news is Culver City has a lot of holes to fill before they can call themselves a good football team.
“We need to improve in all phrases of the game,” said offensive coordinator Aki Wilson.
Although Culver City scored on an 86- yard run by Donavan Davis on the first play from scrimmage, West Torrance scored 37 straight points to put the game away by halftime. West Torrance’s all-CIF running back Brett Ojiyi scored five touchdowns.
“When Brett ran inside we stopped him,” said Centaur Coach Jahmal Wright. “But we let him get outside. That really hurt us.
“We missed a lot of tackle, and the turnovers killed us. We need to execute better.”
The offense starts with the quarterback position, and the Centaurs’ Xavier Ryan was under tremendous pressure most of the night.
If the offensive line can hold their blocks longer at the line of scrimmage, Culver City probably can beat Peninsula because Davis and Anthony Polk form a solid running attack.
Davis ran for 159 yards and scored two touchdowns against West Torrance.
“We fought hard,” Davis said. “But we have a lot of first-year players. We can bounce back against Peninsula.”
Davis realizes that he is the team’s main weapon. “It’s a tough role, but I think I can do it,” Davis said. “As long as my teammates have my back, I can carry the load. But we also need to pick our quarterbacks up when they make a mistake. This is a team game.”
Although the score was lopsided, the players and coaches stayed positive after the loss. “We could not get any momentum going,” said assistant coach Cornell Myles. “We were battling against ourselves. But we never gave up. That’s what I like about this team.”
According to Myles the Centaurs have a good defense. “We are fast and can get to the ball,” he said. “We need to play a little tougher and tackle better. We have a lot of potential.”
On offense Culver City would like to control the ball with their running game and that will take the pressure off of their young quarterbacks. “We need to stay calm and not panic,” said assistant coach Jarvis Redwine. “We need to stick to the game plan. We are young but after a few games we will be alright.”
Mr. Finley may be contacted at sfinley50@aol.com
