Centaurs Football Blanks Leuzinger, 52-0

So much for overlooking the opponent.

The Culver City High football team tuned up for its biggest nonleague game of the year by beating up on winless Leuzinger 52-0 Friday night, setting the stage for next week's intersectional showdown against Los Angeles City Section powerhouse Harbor City Narbonne.

"I'm proud of the goose egg—it's our first one of the season and hopefully it's one of many to come," Culver City Coach Jahmal Wright said. "There's always something we can work on ... form tackling and wrapping up. [O'Connor] is doing a great job at quarterback. He's waited a long time to take the reins of this offense and he's playing like we know he could. Gary Graves came in and did a great job too. He's the next best quarterback at Culver City High School."

Graves applied the final brush stroke to Culver City's masterpiece with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Sydney Dorsey in the fourth quarter.

"Gary did real, real good the second half," quarterbacks coach Reggie Haynes of Graves. "He came in, stayed poised, stayed focus, made some smart decisions and got us a touchdown."

Culver City's offense struggled at times the previous week against Redondo but was coolly efficient against another Bay League team Friday.

"We just try to tell them every week is a progression and you don't look at the opponent, you practice to get better every week," Centaurs offensive coordinator Aki Wilson said. "We work on executing and doing what we're supposed to do."

The offensive line provided more than enough time for senior quarterback Lukas O'Connor, who diced up the Leuzinger defense.

"The O-line did really well today," said O'Connor, who threw for 180 yards and four touchdowns. "This was a good bounce back after last week [against Redondo] when we had ups and downs. Next week, I expect even more because we do have Narbonne and that's one of the biggest games of the year."

Wright told his players to savor the victory—but only until morning.

"Starting tomorrow there's a whole new sense of purpose," Wright said in the post-game huddle. "I want you focused like never before all week. We have to have an excellent practice Monday, with no excuses, so we're ready to knock off a big dog next week."

The "big dog" that Wright was referring to is Narbonne, currently No. 2 in the City Section's Division I rankings by Maxpreps. The Gauchos (2-2) avenged last season's 48-22 loss to Gardena Serra with a 26-20 victory Friday night.

"I thought we did pretty good, we just stayed focused, did our jobs 100 percent and everything," Centaurs running back Akili Skannal said. "I try my hardest just to get a 'W' all the time. I love my O-line. I couldn't do anything without them."

Leuzinger, which lost to Culver City's Ocean League rival Santa Monica 35-0 in its season opener, came close to scoring its first touchdown of the season on its first drive but turned it over on downs at the Centaurs' 3-yard line.

After a 25-yard field goal by Ret Tilman opened the scoring, O'Connor threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Jimmy Haywood and Culver City had a 10-0 lead heading into the second quarter.

A pair of scoring throws by O'Connor (a seven-yarder to Michael Horchin and a five-yarder to Kevin Porche) and one from Porche to Horchin out of the Wildcat formation widened the Centaurs' lead to 31-0 at halftime. 

O'Connor's final touchdown was a 21-yard strike to Julius Wilson in the third quarter. Culver City began the week ranked seventh in the CIF Southern Section's Western Division poll.

"I try not to pay attention to that [the rankings]," Wilson said. "I haven't seen all the team above us, so I can't really say. All I know is what we can do, I think we can be better than seventh, though."

Perhaps no one was more pleased with the team's performance than Culver City linebackers coach Tom Crump: "Our backup, Christian Rubalcaba (listed at 6-0, 150 opounds), probably the smallest guy on the team had one of the best plays of the season. We always talk to our linebackers about containing the edge and he took on that big pulling guard and set the edge and stood the guy up and I was like 'Wow!' Everybody that came in contributed--Travis Hudson, Brandon Myers, Christian Rubalcaba... I can name the whole second- and third-team and still miss somebody."

The Olympians produced over one-third of their offense yardage on that opening march. Friday's victory marked Culver City's first shutout since a 49-0 rout of Ocean League rival Hawthorne in Week 9 last season.

Holding a huge lead at halftime allowed Culver City to rest its starters in the second half. "That was the plan, to make this a good team victory," Wright said. "Get everyone involved, win the ballgame, look sharp and not get anyone hurt."

Culver City hosts Narbonne next Friday night at 7 p.m. and opens league play the following week with its homecoming game against Morningside.

Score by Quarters

1

2

3

4

Final

Leuzinger

0

0

0

0

0

Culver City

10

21

14

7

52

Scoring Summary

Culver City -- Tilman 25 field goal

Culver City -- Haywood 33 pass from O'Connor (Tilman kick)

Culver City -- Horchin 7 pass from O'Connor (Tilman kick)

Culver City -- Porche 5 pass from O'Connor (Tilman kick)

Culver City -- Horchin 7 pass from Porche (Tilman kick)

Culver City -- Wilson 21 pass from O'Connor (Tilman kick)

Culver City -- Skannal 5 run (Tilman kick)

Culver City -- Dorsey 29 pass from Graves (Tilman kick)

Records: Leuzinger 0-4; Culver City 4-0.

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