Sports
Sea Hawks Must Vanquish Millikan QB
Redondo Union travels to Long Beach to take on Christian Ybarra, who leads the Rams in rushing as well as passing.
When the Redondo Union High Sea Hawks play at Long Beach Millikan on Thursday, they will face an elite quarterback who leads his team in rushing as well as passing. The way to beat the Rams is contain that quarterback, Christian Ybarra.
"Everybody has got to have second effort because he is good," Redondo Union Coach Gene Simon said. "We've got to have people around him. One guy is not going to be able to tackle him all the time. We get a group of guys around him, hopefully we're going to be able to contain him."
Millikan (1-1) crushed Artesia High last week, 46-7. Ybarra threw for a touchdown and also ran for one. Through two games, Ybarra is 25 of 43 (.581) for 338 yards and three touchdowns. He has rushed for 129 yards on 16 plays to average 8.1 per play.
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Simon said he would make "some adjustments in personnel" against Ybarra and the Rams offense that's built around him. "That's part of the plan. But it's not the entirety of the plan," Simon said.
Another part of the plan is execution of fundamentals, including getting off blocks. "Our guys have got to attack the offensive linemen," Simon said.
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Millikan finished 6-5 last year, beating Redondo Union 26-21.
Some of the Sea Hawk players are banged up, Simon acknowledged, but may be ready to go by game time.
Although the Sea Hawks (1-1) lost 37-13 to highly ranked Serra High last week, Simon said his squad gained a lot of confidence by staying in contention for most of the game. They'll need that confidence facing Ybarra, who can both juke and throw an accurate deep ball with defensive linemen in his face.
Two games into the season, Simon is pleased with how his team is developing.
"Considering that we're young in the secondary, and we're young at quarterback, we've done a good job of controlling the other team's offense," Simon said. "I think our defense has been pretty stout most of the time.
"We gave up passing yards in both games. Really, I think if our offense comes along nicely we're going to be in contention for the league, and hopefully we can keep people healthy enough to make that happen."
