FRESH FACE: Dylan Keeney, Granite Bay, Division I
Nobody saw Dylan Keeney coming. Certainly not Long Beach Poly. The Granite Bay defense, a senior-dominated group that entered the Division I championship allowing opponents just a shade less than 18 points a game, studied the film with its coaches and determined more personnel would be needed to defend the speed and athleticism of Long Beach Poly. It was the football version of Chief Brody’s famous line from “Jaws.” They were going to need a bigger boat. Enter Dylan Keeney — a 6-foot-5, 210-pound junior linebacker. “Dylan Keeney is one heckuv an athlete,” Grizzlies’ defensive coordinator John Roza said following Granite Bay’s dramatic 21-20 victory. “He’s actually not a starter for us, though, because a senior is ahead of him. But we made some special packages for him tonight. And he came up big for us.” Very big. Keeney made three of the game’s biggest defensive plays in pass coverage for the Grizzlies. He had a pair of interceptions, returning the second one 29 yards for a go-ahead with 4:36 remaining in the third quarter. Then, midway through the fourth quarter, with the score tied and Long Beach Poly having driven inside the Granite Bay 25-yard line, Keeney fully extended himself to deflect a pass intended for a Poly receiver inside the 5-yard line. His deflection was eventually caught by Granite Bay safety Aaron Knapp at the 2. “(All season) he never complained about not getting as much time as he could,” Knapp said of Keeney. “And he listened tonight. On his pick six, we were telling him earlier in the game, ‘You’ve got to get under that out and under that curl,’ and he was all ears. Good for him, I’m so happy for him. That was just awesome.” Long Beach Poly eventually did get its go-ahead score with 3:47 left in the game, but Granite Bay answered with a 6-play, 77-yard drive and won the game on a 3-yard run by John Cooley with 1:12 left. Knapp sealed the win with his second interception of the game. Keeney finished with four tackles, including one for loss, and the two interceptions. Roza just shook his head. “We were hoping for something like that, but we didn’t expect it,” he said. “Guys like that make me look good.”
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CALM FACE: Jared Goff, Marin Catholic, Division III The good ones always rise to the occasion. And Jared Goff is a good one. The son of a former Major League catcher, it was no surprise that the 6-foot-5, 190-pound Cal-bound Marin Catholic quarterback embraced the big stage. “Jared was the same today as he was in any other game that we played,” junior receiver and defensive back Andrew Celis said. “He was calm and very encouraging. Everything was the same. “We weren’t putting too much on it, because it was the state game. It was just another game and we couldn’t take it too serious or approach it any different. Jared was just calm. He was just Jared today.” It was Celis who hauled in a 4-yard touchdown pass from Goff on the first play of the second quarter to give the Wildcats a 21-0 lead over a Madison-San Diego team which looked overwhelm during the first 12 minutes of play. Taking advantage of short fields due to strong special teams and defensive play, Goff needed a total of just 2 minutes, 24 seconds of possession time to get Marin Catholic its first three scores — two of which he passed for and one in which he ran in from 4 yards out. Madison had a “good one,” too, in Pierre Cormier. The Arizona-bound running back also embraced the big stage and his 296 yards and three second-half touchdowns were just enough to lift the Warhawks to a 38-35 victory Goff was practically unshakeable throughout the game. After a Cormier touchdown put the Warhawks up 31-20 early in the fourth quarter, Goff put Marin Catholic back in the lead with touchdown passes of 79 and 37 yards. “Every game, every week he’s been phenomenal,” Marin Catholic coach Mazi Moayed said in summing up his quarterback. “I couldn’t ask for a better guy to play quarterback.” Goff finished with 262 yards and four touchdowns plus his rushing score. But in the end, he had to tip his cap to Cormier and the Warhawks. Good ones do that for one another. “I’m happy with my whole team,” he said. “We played great today. We have nothing to hang our heads about. We just got beat.”
December 20, 2012
SportStars™
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