Game of the Week Preview
Bulldogs and Scots set to battle for city supremacy
CALEXICO — It’s no secret that over the past decade, the Calexico Football Bulldogs have fought shy of emerging as a regional powerhouse. Since 2008 they have posted only one winning record — an 8-2 campaign in 2012, made all the more remarkable by the fact it followed an 0-10 campaign in 2011 — and have won only one playoff game (in 2016 against Palo Verde Valley).
Still, when the team locked horns with the Vincent Memorial Scots this past year, they cannot have expected things to go quite the way they did.
Calexico had, after all, made solid gains in 2016 under first year head-man John Tyree. They finished with six big Ws after (another) winless campaign in 2015. And one of those wins was the aforementioned, long-elusive playoff victory. The team wasn’t returning its full complement of players to be sure, but there was every reason to think they could at least hold steady while waiting for the new guys to get up to speed, and in a game against Vincent, whom they outweigh by a factor of 10 in terms of enrollment — averaging roughly 3,000 to nearly 300 — well…
Suffice it to say, the last time the two schools had met, way back in 2008, the Bulldogs treated the Scots to a 65-0 hiding. And that wasn’t a Calexico squad that went out and set the world on fire, finishing with a 5-5 record that included losses of 70-0, 62-14 and 70-13.
Surely they would be able to take care of business this time, too. Right?
So they may have thought. But the Scots of that era and the Scots of this one are hardly compatible.
In 2008, competing in the Desert League, they went 1-8 and generally did yeoman’s work as a full-service punching bag for all comers. Over nine games they managed to put up a whole 26 points, while allowing 389.
The Vincent of 2017 was an entirely different animal. By then, they had worked themselves up into respectability, winning 10 games in back to back years starting in 2014. 2016 had been a more sedate 5-5, but even so, they scarcely resembled a doormat.
On paper, then, were a couple of teams that ought to be able to give each other a good run for their money.
The on-field product begged to differ with that assessment. Loudly.
When all was said and done Vincent stood alone atop a moldering heap of Bulldog dreams, having atoned for the ghosts of ‘08 to the tune of 52-12.
Calexico will undoubtedly be looking to cleanse itself of last year’s humiliation. Senior offensive tackle Luis Estrada admitted as much saying, “We’re coming back, trying to get back in it, trying to get that win. To get revenge, basically.”
It’s possible that they have a bit more momentum heading into this year’s edition, having defeated Yuma 14-12 (an eerie inversion of 2017’s 12-14 loss) last week. Having tasted a bit of success, they may be more cognizant of how to handle the A-game the Scots will almost certainly be throwing at them.
Asked what differentiated the 2018 Bulldogs from their predecessor, Estrada claimed the answer was attitude. “The attitude is different compared to last year. We’re more dedicated.” This has led to greater overall team focus and cohesion, heading into a game that is sure to require ample amounts of each.
QB Raymond Ontiveros wasn’t around in 2017, but he can feel the specter of the defeat all the same. “Knowing we had a big loss last year, that kind of gets me mad.” He went on to note the coaching staff has been riding the team very hard in the lead-up to the big game, but he feels the extra intensity will pay off. “We’ve been getting better every day, actually, on offense and defense.”
The overall team ethos is summed up by Mr. Estrada: “We won’t make the same mistakes we did last year.”
Vincent’s mindset is, of course, on the tails side of that coin. They want to exploit what they see as systemic failures at the heart of the Bulldogs’ schemes, and thus stay Kings of Calexico for another 365.
Coach David Wong who has been at the heart of the Vincent Memorial resurgence on the sidelines for the past seven seasons — first as an assistant before taking over in 2015 — said he feels the Scots have the right stuff to topple pretty much any opponent, no matter the size.
He touted a system that has been built on a bedrock of continuity and community, getting all the guys together starting at the JV level and making sure that everybody knows everybody and everybody knows the Vincent way of doing things. Being in the program helps them “learn who they are and who they can count on.” Wong knows that at Vincent, they’re always going to be “a small family,” so he works to turn that into a strength rather than a weakness.
He also heaps praise on a coaching staff that he credits with giving the Scots a continual strategic edge. “We have eight coaches in the program, and seven of them are very good,” he laughs, omitting himself. The coaches spend multiple days a week watching film, working not only to tailor their schemes to the opponent but to strengths or weaknesses their players may have revealed in the interim.
Calexico’s triple option attack, shouldn’t pose too much of a challenge, he said, because they run it 80 percent of the time. “If you stop that, what’s left?”
Stay tuned to find out. The two teams run it back 7 p.m. Friday at Calexico’s Ward Field.