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Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009

Shawn Jansen: Eye on Preps -- Hilmar loses QB McCown to broken collarbone

This, heading into regular-season finale with WAC rival Patterson

Quinton McCown won't let you see the disappointment on his face.

The Hilmar quarterback never knows when a teammate might be watching.

Even when he's not on the field McCown is still a leader.

But make no mistake about it, McCown is upset.

How can he not be?

For the second straight year, a broken collarbone has forced him to trade in his shoulder pads for a sling.

"It's hard to take, but there's nothing I can do about it," McCown said. "I'm just going to be there for the team and help Andrew (Olson) out as much as I can."

The injury happened on the third play of the game on Friday against Orestimba.

McCown broke free for a 30-yard run. Instead of ducking out of bounds, McCown took on a defender and landed on his left shoulder.

After breaking his right collarbone last year, McCown knew right away his collarbone was broken again.

"I went out there for the next play after it happened. I knew it was broken," McCown said. "It was pretty much the same feeling as last time. I started feeling light-headed and started seeing stars.

"When I went to the sideline, I felt underneath my shoulder pads and I could feel the bone snap down."

Still, McCown was back at practice on Monday helping Olson, who was called up from the junior varsity team to replace him.

"You feel horrible for the kid," Hilmar coach Frank Marques said. "As coaches, we're going to have other chances. We're here year after year. We have players come and go.

"It's not the same for the kids. But both times Quinton has handled it like a champ. Of course he's disappointed, but when he's around the team he doesn't show it."

It's a tough blow for McCown and Hilmar.

The 6-foot-3, 184-pound, strong-armed quarterback had thrown for 1,222 yards and 11 touchdowns this year.

His senior year was an opportunity to defend last year's Sac-Joaquin Section championship.

Dealing with the sudden end of his season has been tough.

"It's all I thought about over the weekend," said McCown, who had surgery on Wednesday. "But I know if I'm down then the guys on the team will be down.

"That's why right after it happened, I tried to come off the field like nothing had happened."

Receiver Isaac Diaz filled in as the emergency quarterback for Hilmar despite only taking about five snaps all year at practice. Diaz scored on a run and threw a touchdown pass as Hilmar escaped with a 26-22 win.

"The plan was always for Andrew to take over if something ever happened to Quinton," Marques said. "But we weren't expecting to lose Quinton on the third play. Isaac did a great job filling in."

Marques said Olson would have been Hilmar's starting quarterback this year if it wasn't for McCown.

Olson's transition to varsity should be made easier because he's practiced with the varsity offense all season. He's taken about 25 percent of the reps in practice.

"He's like a Mini-Me," Marques said. "He's a little shorter version of Quinton. He's doesn't run as well as Quinton, but he runs well enough. He does a lot of the things Quinton does."

Olson will also have someone to turn to in McCown.

"I'll just try to help him make the right reads," McCown said. "He used to making single reads on junior varsity.

"It's a lot quicker game on the varsity level. When he comes off the field I'll let him know if I see something he's not seeing."

It appears Merced will have running back Eric DeAnda back this week against Pitman.

The junior missed last week's win over Turlock with a strained Achilles' tendon.

"He's doing a lot better," Merced coach Rob Scheidt said. "He had a good practice (Tuesday). He practiced most of the week last week. We just held him out of a lot of team stuff."

DeAnda has racked up 947 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on 127 carries.

An officiating blunder has forced the Sac-Joaquin Section office to come up with a solution for Tuesday's boys soccer playoff game between Delhi and Vacaville Christian.

First a quick recap of the contest.

The game went to penalty kicks after the score was tied 1-1 after regulation and overtime.

The first round of penalty kicks, which consists of five players from each team, ended with a 4-4 tie.

The game then should have gone to a round of sudden-death penalty kicks.

However, the referees had both teams do another best-of-five round.

Delhi scored on the first penalty kick and would have won a sudden-death round because Vacaville Christian didn't connect on its first penalty kick.

Vacaville Christian then went on and won the second round of penalty kicks 4-3 and was originally declared the winner.

Sac-Joaquin Section commissioner Pete Saco ruled that because proper procedure wasn't followed during the shootout, the teams will replay the first round of penalty kicks today at Sacramento Capital Christian.

The winner will then face Capital Christian at 5 p.m. in the second round of the playoffs. The loser goes home.

"Basically after what happened we had three choices," Sac-Joaquin Section director of communications Will DeBoard said. "We could give the win to Vacaville Christian. We could give the win to Delhi or we could re-kick.

"The only fair decision we felt was to have them re-kick. We decided to redo the first round of penalty kicks because we didn't want to send them all the way up to Sacramento and then have them only kick once and go home."

Shawn Jansen is a Sun-Star sports reporter. He can be reached at 385-2462 or via e-mail at sjansen@mercedsun-star.com.