EL SEGUNDO HERALD November 2, 2017 Page 5
Eagles Dominate
Homecoming Game
Story and Photos by Gregg McMullin
There’s nothing like an El Segundo High
School Homecoming football game and all
the festivities leading up to the game that
bring communities together. The lead-up to the
game is a fun parade down Main Street that
includes themed floats, the Homecoming court,
high school cheerleaders, the Grand Marshall
and an award-winning marching band. It was
a recipe for plenty of spirit and a winning attitude
for the football team. The result was an
El Segundo 55-8 win over Hawthorne.
The parade down Main Street was an epic
event that reminds you of a Saturday Evening
Post rendition that Norman Rockwell might
have sketched. It started with the Eagle mascots
leading the way. They were wearing their new
uniforms donated by Gimlen Orthodontics,
who donated the outfits in the name of April
Gimlen who was Elmer Eagle in 1967. The
parade ramped up with the El Segundo High
marching band blaring the Eagles fight song,
followed by the Grand Marshall Patricia Guzman
riding in a vintage convertible Cadillac. Other
vintage vehicles carried the cheerleaders from
the Class of 1957 that included Janet, Jeanne
and Kay. The Class of 1967 Homecoming King
and Queen rode in another vintage convertible.
King Bobby Appleby, a star baseball player; and
Queen Carmen (Yawn) Chane, who was also
a cheerleader and a former Miss El Segundo,
waved to the throng of parade-watchers lining
Main Street.
The Eagles, entering the game, were coming
off a loss to Lawndale. So to keep their
playoff hopes alive, they’d need a convincing
win over Hawthorne. It wouldn’t take long
for the Eagles to start the rout in front of an
overflow crowd that included alumni from the
classes of 1947, 1957, 1967 and 2007. Prior to
the game, a beautiful rendition of the national
anthem was sung. Under the direction of Gianna
Summers, the award-winning El Segundo High
School choir presented a moving rendition
honoring our flag and nation while most of
the Hawthorne team stood.
On their first possession of the game, the
Eagles had great field position inside the
Hawthorne 30-yard line. On the second play
from scrimmage, Danny McEntee took an
inside handoff and slashed his way behind
the blocking of senior tackle Jess Caravello
26 yards for a touchdown. The rout was on.
Hawthorne had a dismal night and it seemed
that nothing went right for the Cougars. After
a poor punt, the Eagles took over on Hawthorne’s
38-yard line. On the first play, junior
quarterback Matt Romero found Taj Balogun
behind the Hawthorne secondary for a 38-yard
catch and run touchdown. Hawthorne’s Devante
Wartell fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the
Eagles recovered on the Hawthorne 10-yard
line. Three plays later, McEntee plunged into
the end zone for an El Segundo 21-0 lead with
5:06 remaining in the first quarter.
Hawthorne’s miserable night continued
offensively and the Eagles took over on the
Cougar 44-yard line. Working on another short
field the Eagles went the distance in seven
plays, capped by Dariush Sayson’s one-yard
touchdown run for a 28-0 lead.
After the Eagles’ defense forced Hawthorne
to punt, Scott Melton broke through to block
the kick attempt. Shawn Lyon recovered the
loose ball at the Cougar 19-yard line and this
time the Eagles need just two plays to extend
the lead. After a penalty moved the ball back
to the Hawthorne 28-yard line, Romero completed
a pass to Melton for 20 yards. Then
Devin Bonney caught an eight-yard TD pass
to make it 35-0.
Surprising Rams
Catching NFL by Storm
By Adam Serrao
Maybe it took a trip to London to finally
get the world to realize that the team is for
real. Maybe it’s just a new head coach and
an explosive offense led by second-year
quarterback Jared Goff that has the Los
Angeles Rams sitting tied for first place in
the NFC West standings. Either way you spin
it, the Rams have won four of their last five
games and are now 5-2 heading into Week
9 of the NFL season. After 10 long years of
a tumultuous, losing brand of football, who
would have thought that the Rams would
have had what it takes to be a competitive
team in the NFL in what is now just their
second season in Los Angeles?
The outlook for the Rams is currently as
sunny and bright as the typical seven-day
forecast in Los Angeles. The last time the
Rams finished the regular season with a
winning record was in 2003, when they also
won five of their first seven contests of the
year. New head coach Sean McVay certainly
hopes that this season ends in the same successful
way that the 2003 season did, when
the Rams took home the NFC West title and
lost in the divisional round of the playoffs.
“He has a standard and it’s pretty high in
terms of precise football execution,” Rams
general manager Les Snead said of McVay,
who is currently the youngest head coach
in the NFL. “We needed a culture change,”
star defensive tackle Aaron Donald added.
“You just want to bust your butt for him.”
McVay’s youth and exuberance can certainly
be said to be one reason for Los Angeles’
stark turnaround from a 4-12 finish just one
season ago. Another reason can be what he
and the rest of the coaching staff has done
for an offense that is one of only two in the
league to score over 200 total points in the
season dating back to last week. Jared Goff,
the quarterback who looks like a new man
now that Jeff Fisher is gone, has the Rams
offense leading the league through their bye
week in scoring, averaging 30.3 points per
game. Goff’s nine touchdown passes to just
four interceptions gives the Rams a distinct
weekly advantage on the offensive side of the
ball that the team has not experienced since
the glory days in St. Louis when they were
nicknamed “The Greatest Show on Turf.”
Instead of Marshall Faulk, who occupied
the backfield in those days some 18 years
ago, now resides Todd Gurley. Gurley, like
the Rams as a whole, is also enjoying a
resurgent season in which he has averaged
4.3 yards per carry and gained 627 yards on
the ground. Gurley has also been getting it
done as a receiver, compiling a total of 293
yards and three touchdown catches thus far,
giving the team a potent, dual-threat offensive
weapon to line up behind Goff.
No team is complete without an elite defense
and although the Rams began the year
slowly on that side of the ball, new defensive
coordinator Wade Phillips has now seemingly
turned things around. While the Rams may
have given up a total of 96 points in weeks
two through four of the regular season, they
have only allowed a total of 33 points in
the three games since then. Currently L.A
is allowing 19.7 points per game, which
ranks the team as the league’s 10th best scoring
defense. Coming off of a 33-0 shutout
over the Arizona Cardinals at Twickenham
Stadium in London with Donald now back
from his holdout and fully integrated into
Phillips’ system, that shutout may be a sign
of things to come. It also certainly bodes
well for a Rams team that is headed into a
mixture of tough matchups against the likes
of the Houston Texans, New Orleans Saints,
Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks,
among others.
It may be an understatement to say that
the Rams are the biggest surprise of the
2017 NFL season so far. What’s even more
surprising, though, is that the young team is
finding ways to get the job done on the road
too. Four of the team’s five wins entering the
break have been away from the Coliseum in
Los Angeles (counting the game in London),
as a variety of players continue to get the job
done in the face of adversity. “We’ve got a
lot of good contributors who understand their
importance and their role, and you just try to
make a habit of pointing them out” McVay
explained. “That lets them feel appreciated
because it is recognized and that credit is
well deserved.”
It’s not just the Donalds, Goffs and the
Gurleys who are getting the job done, but
also the Matt Longacres (who leads the
team in sacks), Malcolm Browns (backup
running back) and Marqui Christians (special
teams ace) who are flying under the radar,
giving the Rams a fully balanced attack.
That fully balanced attack is precisely what
Los Angeles will need as it gets into the
part of the schedule that will see the team
take on many of the NFC’s elite lineups.
Through the first half of the season,
Los Angeles already has more wins than it
had all of last year. While only time will tell
if they can hold onto the first place spot in
their division, it has become overwhelmingly
clear that this young Rams team is certainly
headed in the right direction.
– Aserrao6@yahoo.com •
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See Eagles, page 12
It took two Hawthorne defenders to stop Arman Sayson on this 18-yard run.
One of the reasons the Eagles offense rolled was senior offensive tackle Jess Caravello.