Bishop’s back to full strength in win

Knights top Torreys in rivalry game

By Phil Dailey

phildailey@lajollalight.com

The Bishop’s School was finally back to playing with its full roster last weekend and the result was a dominant homecoming performance.

The Knights (5-3 overall, 1-2 Coastal League) upended cross-town rival La Jolla Country Day 35-16 to end a three-game losing streak that started on Oct. 7. It was the third straight win for the Knights against the Torreys.

For Country Day (6-2, 1-2), it was the team’s second straight loss in three games playing in the Coastal League for the first time in more than a decade.

Among the starters back for Bishop’s was QB Joey Moreno, who did not play the last two games. Moreno, the team’s starter on last season’s state championship team was missed on offense which combined for only 39 points in the team’s three losses this season.

On Saturday night, Moreno was key in leading the Knights’ offense to 14 quick points in the first quarter and a 70-yard TD pass to Dominique Love late in the second quarter.

Leading 21-9 with 11 seconds to play in the half, Bishop’s head coach Joel Allen decided to take a shot and see if his team could get one more score.

“I figured we would get one play and if we didn’t get it we would punt it and go to halftime,” Allen said.

The Knights faked a screen pass to Love, who then ran as fast as he could down the left sideline. Moreno contacted with Love as he scooted into the end zone with only 4 seconds to play in the half. The ensuing point-after gave the Knights a 19-point lead.

“The play originally was a quick screen, but the team noticed that the Torreys were stopping it,” said Love, who has scholarship offers to play football at Colorado and Army.

“(Moreno) actually overthrew it and I was actually surprised when I caught it and I just ran.”

The Torreys came out after halftime and got a score on the team’ssecond possession, a 36-yard run from Colin McMahon to cut the lead to 28-16. That would be as close as they would get.

“I thought looking in the kids’ eyes in the locker room in the pregame, I thought they were ready to go, but obviously we came out and were unusually flat to start and got down,” LJCD head coach Jeff Hutzler said.

“I thought we played hard at times but had some mental lapses at times too,” Hutlzer added. “Bishop’s is a good team, well coached. It was their homecoming game and it would have been great to take it from them.”

The Knights sensed the game would yield a different result than the previous three games during practices leading up to the rivalry game.

“It was great having everyone back, we had key players missing, it was not only hurting us out there on the field physically, but emotionally too,” Love said. “We had a great practice having everyone back and it just felt good and we got back to our old self.”

Having Seau back at full strength, who also had been hampered by injuries, was also key as the sophomore running back ran for the team’s first touchdown as well as catching the team’s second score, a screen pass from Moreno. Seau also scored on a 5-yard run in the second quarter.

“It was important to get back on track,” Allen said. “I told the guys, ‘If there was a must win, it was tonight.’”

Up next for Country Day is a road game at Christian: Bishop’s will host Horizon at La Jolla High.

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