Just a couple of weeks ago, Kyle Miller was entering his third and final year of football as San Marcos’ second-string running back.
On Friday night at Lompoc High’s Huyck Stadium, two-thirds of the Royals’ plays were handoffs to him. With the passing game absent, Miller carried the ball 33 times for 146 yards and a touchdown as San Marcos held off the Braves for a 7-0 victory.
“It feels amazing, but this win was more because of my offensive line. They make it easy,” said Miller, who slashed upfield for a 21-yard touchdown run with 2:38 left in the first quarter.
Things looked destined for overtime with about nine minutes left in the contest, as Lompoc had first-and-goal at the one-yard line but fumbled it away on the first play.
“You’ve gotta hold on to the ball… We committed four critical turnovers and it hurt us,” said Lompoc coach Robin Luken.
After the fumble, Miller made a big run up the middle to convert on third-and-six from the San Marcos five-yard line, but the drive soon stalled on the 20 three plays later. Manny Hernandez, who made plenty of bruising tackles at linebacker, put a whallop into a punt and sent it 55 yards downfield to put the Braves back on the 30. He tackled Marcel Blow for a loss of five yards on the very next play, and Derrick Dallmeyer picked off a deep pass from Lompoc quarterback Ryan Bower two plays after that.
San Marcos’ ensuing drive fizzled and resulted in another Hernandez punt, but Blow muffed it and the Royals recovered and killed the clock effectively over the final minutes.
The Braves (0-3) tallied just 156 yards of offense on the night, and just 51 of those yards were gained on the ground. San Marcos (1-1) gained all but eight of its 203 yards on the ground, and attempted just four passes. Coach Jeff Hesselmeyer said that it was his team’s veteran corps of lineman that made the difference.
“The offensive line played really well the whole game, and our defense really won it for us in the second half… I’m just so happy for all these kids,” said Hesselmeyer.
Bower came into the game in the second half after Braves starter Evan Aguilar left the game with an arm injury. Aguilar, who was 8-for-15 with 105 yards passing at the time, threw an interception to Victor Mendez in the first quarter. Taylor Gonzales made a big play for San Marcos early on when he blocked a 41-yard field goal attempt at the end of Lompoc’s first drive. Vashawn Harvey also had a big game defensively, making a handful of tackles in the backfield as well as recovering Lompoc’s goal-line fumble.
Miller, who became the starter after Cody Clark was injured last week, isn’t concerned about facing such a heavy workload for the Royals on Friday nights.
“I could do this every single day of my life,” he said with a smile.
SAN MARCOS 7, LOMPOC 0
San Marcos…7 0 0 0 — 7
Lompoc…0 0 0 0 — 0
First Quarter
SM — Miller 21 run (Guiterrez kick), 2:38.
TEAM TOTALS….SM, L
First downs…10, 8
Rushes-yards…46-195, 29-51
Passing yards…8, 105
Total yards…203, 156
Comp-Att-Int…1-4-0, 8-15-2
Penalties-yards…9-62, 5-40
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — SM: Miller 33-146, Keefer 8-40, Blum 1-5, Hernandez 1-2, Crook 3-2. L: McComber 9-42, Kucharski 6-17, Aguilar 5- (-10), Haynes 4-2, Sapp 2-6, Morehart 1-0, Blow 2-(-6).
PASSING — SM: Crook 1-4-0, 8 yards. L: Aguilar 6-9-1, 77 yards; Bower 2-6-1, 28 yards.
RECEIVING — SM: Kirkwood 8. L: Luna 3-38, Blow 1-1, Kucharski 1-26, Sapp 1-12, Morehart 2-28.
