Riptide Battle Bakersfield
Keith Antigiovanni
Friday May 24, 2002
“They’re going to come in pumped and ready to play. They are a much better team then they were when we first played them or at least much better then we knew at the time,” Riptide Head Coach Cree Morris said.
San Diego is coming off a disappointing 49-37 loss at Fresno last week. A win as it turned out would have moved the Riptide to within a half-game of first place because Bakersfield lost at home to Peoria. “We were just flat and didn’t make the plays we needed to,” Morris added. The Riptide could manage only 37 points against the worst ranked defense last week. Defensively it was the same old story, make big plays, stop the offense on first and second down then give up a first-down or big play on third-down. The Riptide allowed eight of nine third or fourth-down conversions last week. “I really don’t have answer or reason for why that is. We just didn’t get it done,” Morris said.
The Riptide can be encouraged by the fact they dominated Bakersfield in the first-half on opening night in a game they should have won. San Diego led 27-3 late in the first-half only to watch the QB Chad Elliot bring the Blitz back and eventually win in overtime on a touchdown pass to Steve Wofford.
That game was a tale of two halves for not only the Riptide but for their QB Kane Claunch. In the first-half he was brilliant throwing three touchdown scores to Marty Graham but in the second-half threw three interceptions, the last one leading to Bakersfield’s game winning score.
San Diego’s defense was also coasting in the first-half until stopping the Blitz throughout the first half as they allowed only a field goal on the first four drives. The defense proceeded to fall apart in the second-half giving up 33 points thanks in part to DS Kevin Burton’s injury. Burton was having an outstanding game game breaking up five passes and intercepting one pass but was forced out due to injury. Burton has been injured since as San Diego’s defense has struggled ranking next-to-last.
Things will not get any easier against Bakersfield as the Riptide face the af2 leader in passing yards, Chad Elliot. “Offensively, they are outstanding and really are fundamentally sound on both sides of the ball. Coach Fuller has done a great job for them so far,” Morris said.
A Riptide win gives them life and pulls them to within half game of first-place a loss drops them 2.5 games out with two losses to Bakersfield. There looks to be only one team out of the Western Division to make the playoffs this year. San Diego is already in a must-win game by mid-season.
Keith Antigiovanni is a free-lance writer in San Diego, California. He has worked for several local newspapers covering sports, government and business. Keith started writing in 1995 after graduating with a Bachelors Degree in Mass Media Communications from the University of San Diego. Aside from working as a sportswriter he has a side business of providing marketing assistance/research for small businesses and also directs,produces and hosts a regular public access television show on Time-Warner Cable named "San Diego Yesterday". Antigiovanni is also a member of the San Diego Sportswriter Association.
