GILBERTO RIOS (50)
GILBERT CORNEJO (8)
Lompoc High football coach ROBIN LUKEN Luken named defensive tackle GILBERTO RIOS (#50 pictured above) and safety GILBERT CORNEJO (#8 above) for their play Friday against San Luis Obispo. Rios led the Braves in defensive points with 24 while Cornejo was runner-up with 17. “Both of them had real good games,” Luken said Wednesday. “Anytime you’re in double digits you’re running around making things happen.”
Despite the efforts of Rios and Cornejo Lompoc High was mathematically eliminated from postseason contention.
This the second year in a row that the Braves will play only 10 games with no playoffs.
The last time that happened two years running was 38 years ago in 1968 and 1969. Things were actually so bad then that the Braves went seven years—from ’63 to ’69 without a CIF berth.
After that LHS (under JIM SPRUILL, MIKE WARREN, DAVE REYNOLDS and DICK BARRETT) ran up a 21-year streak until coach ROBIN LUKEN’s first year in 1991. Luken’s teams bounced back in 1992 and reeled off a 10-year run until 2001, after which they rebounded even bigger, with back-to-back CIF titles. They went deep into CIF in 2004 and 2005 but failed to qualify in 2006 and again this year. At 1-3 and with only one conference game remaining, CIF is a memory.
“Everybody seems to be asking will I be back,” Luken said Wednesday. “I’ll be back. You think I want to leave when I’m getting my butt kicked?”
Asked if the current drought indicates a return to the mediocrity which preceded the surge of the 1970’s, Luken replied:
“I hope it’s not that. But it takes a lot of hard work. When you’re playing schools that are bigger you have to work hard. How many kids get a brand new car when they graduate? ‘Why work hard when I’m gonna get it anyway,’ they ask. In football it doesn’t work like that.”
Asked if the jump up to the larger-school PAC-7 in 2006 was a factor, Luken said “We lost to Nipomo. In the Los Padres League we’d probably be in the middle of the pack. You’ve got to have the work ethic to succeed. That’s what we need to move to another level.”
Luken said the defeat to SLO was preceded by the Friday morning loss of lineman ADAM LEACH due to illness. Luken was forced to shuffle his personnel without the benefit of a practice. “Of the first 12 plays we ran we didn’t block one of them correctly,” he grumbled.
This Friday the Braves (1-3) venture north to Atascadero where the Greyhounds promise to run the ball directly at their visitors. “Last night on TV they said they were going to run the ball,” Luken noted. “Paso Robles’ running back gained 291 yards and broke the school record against us. Wouldn’t you run?” Atascadero (2-1) suffered an upset defeat at the hands of Righetti last week.
With Leach, ANDREW VAN DYKE and TOM McCAFFREY still sidelined, Luken said he would field an offensive line of SETH BROADHEAD, EVAN BEDFORD, BUCKY MARTINEZ, SAHID TORRES, and ALAN JULIAN.
Press Box Productions will broadcast the game on Comcast Channel 23 at 7:30.
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CHAVEZ CROWNED AT LA PURISIMA GOLF
Former LHS golfer RICK CHAVEZ captured the 2007 La Purisima Golf Course Club championship when he defeated veteran Bill Cushman of Santa Barbara. Both golfers recorded a two day total 4-over-par 148. Chavez scored 74 each day and prevailed in the playoff. As the La Purisima club champion, Chavez has qualified for the Southern California Club Champions tournament to be played December 3 in Palm Springs --Gary Prucha, Handicap Chair.
After that LHS (under JIM SPRUILL, MIKE WARREN, DAVE REYNOLDS and DICK BARRETT) ran up a 21-year streak until coach ROBIN LUKEN’s first year in 1991. Luken’s teams bounced back in 1992 and reeled off a 10-year run until 2001, after which they rebounded even bigger, with back-to-back CIF titles. They went deep into CIF in 2004 and 2005 but failed to qualify in 2006 and again this year. At 1-3 and with only one conference game remaining, CIF is a memory.
“Everybody seems to be asking will I be back,” Luken said Wednesday. “I’ll be back. You think I want to leave when I’m getting my butt kicked?”
Asked if the current drought indicates a return to the mediocrity which preceded the surge of the 1970’s, Luken replied:
“I hope it’s not that. But it takes a lot of hard work. When you’re playing schools that are bigger you have to work hard. How many kids get a brand new car when they graduate? ‘Why work hard when I’m gonna get it anyway,’ they ask. In football it doesn’t work like that.”
Asked if the jump up to the larger-school PAC-7 in 2006 was a factor, Luken said “We lost to Nipomo. In the Los Padres League we’d probably be in the middle of the pack. You’ve got to have the work ethic to succeed. That’s what we need to move to another level.”
Luken said the defeat to SLO was preceded by the Friday morning loss of lineman ADAM LEACH due to illness. Luken was forced to shuffle his personnel without the benefit of a practice. “Of the first 12 plays we ran we didn’t block one of them correctly,” he grumbled.
This Friday the Braves (1-3) venture north to Atascadero where the Greyhounds promise to run the ball directly at their visitors. “Last night on TV they said they were going to run the ball,” Luken noted. “Paso Robles’ running back gained 291 yards and broke the school record against us. Wouldn’t you run?” Atascadero (2-1) suffered an upset defeat at the hands of Righetti last week.
With Leach, ANDREW VAN DYKE and TOM McCAFFREY still sidelined, Luken said he would field an offensive line of SETH BROADHEAD, EVAN BEDFORD, BUCKY MARTINEZ, SAHID TORRES, and ALAN JULIAN.
Press Box Productions will broadcast the game on Comcast Channel 23 at 7:30.
-0-
CHAVEZ CROWNED AT LA PURISIMA GOLF
Former LHS golfer RICK CHAVEZ captured the 2007 La Purisima Golf Course Club championship when he defeated veteran Bill Cushman of Santa Barbara. Both golfers recorded a two day total 4-over-par 148. Chavez scored 74 each day and prevailed in the playoff. As the La Purisima club champion, Chavez has qualified for the Southern California Club Champions tournament to be played December 3 in Palm Springs --Gary Prucha, Handicap Chair.
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