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Great prep moments from the weekend

Posted by: Fred Kroner

Saturday, October 18, 2008 5:07 PM

OK, your team is ahead 47-8 following a fourth-quarter touchdown and you call for a two-point conversion.

Is it running up the score?

When this event transpired on Saturday afternoon at Fisher, it was the opposite.

"I was trying not to score," Fisher coach Matt Leng said.

And, in fact, it is easier to call a running play up the middle for a two-point conversion that goes no where than to tell your placekiker to miss his attempt.

Had Fisher scored the points with more than 10 minutes left against Rockridge, the remainder of the game would have been played with a running clock due to the 40-point mercy rule.

By calling for a run up the middle against a stacked line, Leng was able to keep the margin under 40 points and his reserves had three subsequent full possessions to receive significant playing time.

"They deserve that," he said.

One of those reserves was senior Tyler Gray, who didn't play football as a freshman or sophomore and was a late arrival as a junior.

"He knocked on the door the first day of practice and said, 'I'm here,'" Leng said.

On Saturday, he got his first carry in a varsity game. He got his first touchdown. And, he capped it off with his first 100-yard rushing performance, gaining 101 yards on his six tries.

That's an afternoon this teen-ager will remember and cherish for the rest of his life. And it was made possible because of a thoughtful coach who made certain the running clock didn't come into play in this nonconference game.

Random thoughts:

Talk about a do-everything player. Fisher's Colten Unzicker had 75 rushing yards, 56 receiving yards, 34 passingf yards and 4 return yards against Rockridge. He broke Fisher's single-season rushing mark in the game and now has 1,490 yards through eight contests.

Friday's chance to cover a home game at Unity's Hicks Field prompted this thought: How many other high schools have a 25-second clock at each end of the field. What a great deal for the players.

It's also neat that Unity's field features some AstroTurk on the sidelines where the players generally stand, the area that gets worn down on most fields by season's end. It looked great on Friday, even as the raindrops fell throughout the contest with Clinton.