Tradition Never Graduates....But Talent Does

The first part of that post title is the motto of the Mission Viejo Football Team. The second half added by some past graduates and seemed pretty appropriate in light of the team's first league loss since 1999. Tesoro High School won 28-24 in a game that was very badly played by Mission. Unfortunately, the big linemen who used to control the line of scrimmage are gone, as are the big backs that used to charge through the holes those big linemen made. The defense also clearly suffered from problems on the front line.

Mission was hit with penalty after penalty - at one time 3 procedure penalties in a row. There must have been 8 or 9 procedure penalties called on the team, and the most damaging penalty of all was a holding penalty that brought back what would have been the winning touchdown. They were awfully sloppy or the referees had it out for them.

With about 7 minutes left in the game Mission was up 24-14 but they were unable to keep Tesoro from scoring twice, including the winning touchdown with only seconds remaining. It was after Tesoro made it 24-21 that Mission lost the touchdown on the penalty. It really seemed to take the air out of the team.

Tesoro also converted a game saving 4th down late in the contest which kept their hopes alive. If they had failed, there wouldn't have gotten the ball back with enough time to make up the gap.

I have to give credit to Tesoro - they played a great game. They made a couple of costly mistakes, but overall played a pretty error-free game. They didn't give yardage away on penalties, and when it was time to buckle down and score, they performed. My hat's off to the team, but not their fans. They didn't distinguish themselves when they loudly booed the kids in the Mission Viejo Marching Band as they walked by the stands following their halftime show performance. Low class.

Both teams will likely be in the playoffs, but I doubt Mission will survive the first round. The team just doesn't seem to have the same fire that I've seen in past years.

I think the fire graduated.