Jaguars still trying to nail recipe for success
Poor execution bedevils talented Capital squad
Too much garlic. That’s what Bill Moon identified as the problem in creating the perfect recipe for the Capital football team. After last week’s 42-6 loss to St. Michael’s, the seventh-year Jaguars head coach likened the process of building a good team to a recipe. All it takes is one ingredient to be off, and the whole dish is spoiled. He saw a young squad trying to do too much too often, and it deepened the hole the Jaguars (1-2-1) dug themselves. This week has been about preaching execution and trust in preparation for Friday’s nondistrict game at Moriarty (1-3) — each Jaguar needs to do his job and trust his teammate will do another.
Because there is no 20-point play that can erase a deficit — it’s a step by step process. In other words, it’s a lot like cooking.
“If one of the ingredients is out of proportion, everything tastes horrible,” Moon said. “I love spaghetti, and I love garlic, but you can’t put to much garlic in, and you can put too little garlic in.”
The past two weeks identified poor execution as a problem for Capital. In a 38-0 loss to Lovington in Week 3, the Jaguars made four trips inside the Wildcats’ 20-yard line, but came away with no points. Adding to their woes was the loss of junior center Roger Cruz after he suffered a bone bruise on his knee that kept him out of the game against the Horsemen. And Cruz, one of Capital’s team captains, noticed the desperation his teammates showed at times against St. Michael’s.
“It was rough, and not because of the injury,” Cruz said. “It was because we saw how hard everyone was working and how poorly we executed everything. I know these guys are intelligent and they know their job, but I don’t know what happened. They just didn’t execute.”
It showed when the Horsemen, who had scored 18 points via its offense, went 69 yards for a touchdown to open the game. It also showed in a pair of botched snaps on punts, which gave St. Michael’s short fields to navigate. It showed in four dropped passes that could have helped extend drives and slowed down the Horsemen attack.
Moon knew what was missing from his ingredients, and it was Cruz.
“If you’re on a ship and the deck is rolling, you want him,” Moon said. “He is a gravitational force. He is the sun around which the lesser planets circle. He has a presence.”
The good news is that Cruz will be back, but sophomore running back Luke Padilla is playing a little banged up, as is fullback/linebacker/punter Jacob Jiron. Moon hopes that he can limit the activity of those two players, and he points to the depth in his backfield that can help with that. He’s looking to sophomores Geo Muñoz and senior Leo Guzman to fill roles.
“There might be teams that can argue they have a better number-one running back,” Moon said. “They might be able to say their numbertwo is better than our number-two, that’s fine. But your number three? I’m not sure about that.”
The running back depth has helped
ease the burden on sophomore quarterback Manuel Vargas, who was thrusted into the starting role when Dion Martinez separated his shoulder in the preseason scrimmage a month ago.
He is mostly handing the ball off to his running backs, but he had to throw more against the Horsemen, hitting just 4 of 15 for 35 yards and two interceptions.
Vargas recognized that his job is a lot easier when the execution is crisper and when the Jaguars trust the coaching staff’s system.
“I just got to run the play, and the offense is 100 percent perfect,” Vargas said.
Moon said the underclassmen’s poise has impressed him, and he can’t wait for the next two years when they are more experienced and comfortable in their roles.
Then, he and the Jaguars can focus on dessert.
“Poise — they’re way ahead,” Moon said. “Soul — way ahead. Al the intangible stuff, the coconut we sprinkle on the cake, we got and the core of the cake is solid.”
Right now, though, the Jaguars are just trying to perfect Cooking 101.