Spartans take a back seat

Despite its physical nature, football is truly a thinking man's game where strategy and preparation is often the difference between a win or a loss.

High school coaches are known to put in countless hours breaking down film and spend all six days leading up to the game implementing a plan for that particular opponent, but all of the preparation and time on the practice field means nothing if the team doesn't execute on game night.

This was made painfully obvious Friday night in East Nicolaus, where a lack of execution on both sides of the ball allowed Quincy to blow past the Spartans in an easy 36-8 victory.

"We had too many mental mistakes tonight and there's no excuse for that," East Nicolaus coach Mark Varnum said. "It was a failure to execute, bottom line. It was nothing tricky, we just beat ourselves."

Quincy (6-2, 3-1) showed it came to play when Alex Easly broke off a 22-yard run on the first play from scrimmage. Easly would finish the opening period with 97 yards on six carries and a touchdown to give the Trojans a 7-0 lead at the end of the first.

The Trojans moved the ball at will against East Nicolaus in the first half until a fumble recovery by Jake Schwall gave the Spartans (5-3, 3-2) great field position and set up their lone score.

East Nicolaus marched 59 yards on 13 plays in their only sustained march of the game — converting two fourth downs in the process — and Josh Wilson finished the drive with a 4-yard scoring run. Adam Michel then hit Wilson for the two-point conversion to give East Nicolaus an 8-7 lead.

The score remained the same until there were two minutes remaining in the half and the Spartans' mental mistakes began to take its toll.

With Quincy facing a second-and-19, and with time running down, Varnum called a time out and warned his defense about a possible trick play.

Sure enough on the very next snap the Trojans called a halfback-pass with Andrew Murphy hitting a wide-open Cody Cline for a 56-yard touchdown.

Quincy then forced a quick three-and-out to regain possession and struck for a touchdown after another East Nicolaus miscue.

Facing a third-and-10, the Spartans knew a pass was coming yet failed to stop it as quarterback Cameron Diaz De Leon hit Cline for a 32-yard gain down to the 3-yard line. Diaz De Leon found the end zone on the very next play and just like that the Trojans were up 22-8 at the half.

The second half was all Quincy, which limited East Nicolaus to 99 yards in the half, 47 of which came on a run by Alex Cundiff.

Diaz De Leon also took over in the second half and finished the game with 176 yards rushing on 17 carries. Easly did most of his work in the first quarter and finished the game with 127 yards on 13 carries and three touchdowns.

"We were able to run the ball pretty well tonight," Quincy coach Tom Goss said. "But I'm really proud of the way our defense played. We've struggled at times this season."