Pointers bring home ‘The Shoe’ after win against La Jolla

Point Loma’s Pointers went shopping for footwear last Friday night and came home with just the item they’d hoped to find. And it was a perfect fit.

The team turned in its most balanced effort of the season as they raced to a 21-0 halftime lead against favored La Jolla on the Vikings’ field before a homecoming crowd.

And that footwear? It was “The Shoe,” awarded annually to the winning team in what is one of the oldest rivalries in San Diego history. La Jolla (1922) and Point Loma (1925) are two of the oldest high schools in the county and they have played dozens of times over the years. In one of those early meetings, a hightop football shoe was found abandoned on the field. It was bronzed and mounted atop a large trophy.

That trophy mysteriously disappeared and has been replaced by a more modern football shoe and spray-painted before being attached to a small piece of stained wood. But its possession remains huge in the minds of the players on each roster.

The Pointers wasted little time taking command of the game.

After the Vikings took the opening kickoff, they used a no-huddle offense to move the ball quickly down the field before the Pointers (5-4 overall, 1-2 in league), dug in their heels and stopped them. The Vikings missed a field goal attempt and the Pointers immediately bared their teeth.

On their second play, QB Ryder Watson lofted a long pass downfield that landed on the fingertips of Romeo Carter for a 67-yard touchdown play and a 7-0 lead with 7:10 left in the first quarter.

As the quarter came to an end, Pointer Leo Sahd blocked a Viking punt attempt, giving his team the ball at the Viking 34-yard line. Several plays later Canon Ogden ran 14 yards for the first of his two touchdowns and the Pointers were up 14-0 with 10:13 left before intermission.

Next, it was Dylan Upjohn ending another Pointer drive when he was able to grab a Watson rainbow in the deep left part of the end zone to bump his team’s lead to 21-0 before halftime festivities began.

The Vikings emerged from their locker room motivated and marched down the field with the second-half kickoff to score, shaving the lead to 21-7.

But the Pointers weren’t phased, scoring again on their next possession. A long pass from Watson to Carter on the right sideline took them to the Viking nine-yard line before Watson ran it in two plays later for a 28-7 lead with 4:07 left in the third frame.

After a Viking score, they tried an onside kick which appeared to knock one Pointer player back, but in the ensuing scrum, Point Loma’s Jack Robinson recovered and this led to the final score, Ogden running the ball in late in the third quarter. A failed PAT made it 34-7.

The Vikings scored twice later to make the game look closer but this was a dominating Pointer win.

Watson’s final stats showed 13 of 17 completed passes, 215 yards, and two TDs. Carter caught eight balls for 179 of those yards, a 22.4 average.

Pointer head coach Ryan Price was the defensive coordinator at La Jolla last year and the Pointer win brought a smile.

“Emotionally it was a big game for us, a rivalry game, their homecoming, and the kids wanted to get The Shoe back and they were excited all week,” Price said as his players gleefully passed The Shoe around while taking photos in various groups.

“A really good opponent and we had a chance to make a statement win for the program,” Price continued. “We took a step forward with all we’ve learned this year. We got out early, the offense was working well, and the defense got back on its heels a bit in the first half but we got some stops and in the second half, we made stops when it mattered. All together a great team win, we made the plays when we needed to, this was the game where we finally put it all together.”

On Nov. 1, the Pointers end their regular season schedule when the section’s third-rated team, 7-2 Cathedral Catholic visits Pete Ross Stadium for a Western League game. Looking at common opponents, the Dons beat Madison 55-6, St. Augustine 42-0, but lost to Lincoln 27-7.

The time came years ago to create a separate league and place private schools that could recruit players into their league where they could play each other. The City Conference includes San Diego Unified School District schools but Cathedral, St. Augustine, and Coronado were added to the football leagues for some reason, making a competitive imbalance.

EXTRA POINTS

The Pointer JV is 6-2 after a 26-0 win over St. Augustine and La Jolla could not field a team. The freshman team is 5-3 after a 21-14 loss to St. Augustine and a 54-0 win over La Jolla.

Playoff pairings will be announced on Oct. 26. Look on the Beacon’s website (sdnews.com) for Pointer football and all fall sports’ schedules.

The Pointers are now ranked 23rd in the CIF San Diego section entering the season’s final week.

The halftime show at La Jolla was not impressive but ended with a lengthy and colorful fireworks show, something the Pointers couldn’t pull off given their location directly below the takeoff pattern at San Diego International Airport.