No pressure coming with Coronado’s wild playoff ride

Adam Candee

Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2003 | 11:21 a.m.

Coronado's thousand-mile journey of making believers began with the single step of convincing themselves they could do it.

"We knew we were a good football team," Coronado coach Paul Berg said. "But I don't know if we thought we were No. 1 in the Southeast (Division)."

Yet this season alone, Coronado already earned its first division win, its first division championship, and its first playoff victory.

The party-crashing Cougars (SE-1, 8-2) hope that Friday night's Sunrise Region semifinal against Desert Pines (NE-2, 7-3) is just another great story to tell from a wild ride.

At the beginning of the ride was the coaching change from Ron Smeltzer to Berg, who added head football coaching duties on top of head basketball coaching responsibilities. Berg inherited a strong senior class and an emerging junior quarterback in Andrew Hatch, but not much winning experience.

Faced with that lack of experience -- and the desire not to dwell on its unsuccessful results -- Berg kept things simple for the Cougars: Give full effort, make fewer mistakes than the opponent and let the rest take care of itself.

"We're an offense that prides itself on not

making many mistakes and keeping the game within range," Berg said. "With our defense, we feel like we're in any game when we walk on the field." It is the defense that Coronado relies upon to win games. The Cougars gave up an average of just 10.9 points per game, allowed 20 points or more twice, and posted two shutouts. They gave up 12 points to Foothill in their definitive win of the season.

Coronado began to show some offensive mettle as well last week, putting up 48 points on the strength of Hatch's passing and the receiving of Koury Fingers.

Against Desert Pines, however, the Cougars will face their second consecutive challenge from a strong Northeast offense. Eldorado posted 28 points in Friday's Sunrise quarterfinal, and Desert Pines averaged 28.7 points per game in the regular season.

In the quarterfinals, the Jaguars rebounded from a crushing loss to Las Vegas in a showdown for the Northeast title to beat Silverado for the second time this season. Desert Pines coach Leon Evans watched his team sleepwalk through the first half against the Skyhawks, prompting a halftime speech to his seniors about how the next 24 minutes of football could be their last.

"That kind of woke a couple guys up," Evans said.

A Jaguars hangover is understandable.

Expected by Evans to be rebuilding, the Jaguars lost two of their first three games before winning five in a row to earn both a crack at the division title against Las Vegas and a right to dream a little.

They fell totally flat, losing 36-8 and necessitating a mental vacation.

"We gave the kids a couple days off with having two weeks off (before the playoffs began) just to kind of get their heads off football for a little while," Evans said.

The biggest challenge for Evans this week -- beyond a smashmouth opponent with an improving passing game -- is teaching his relatively green group about the need for playoff intensity. That was not a problem for the Jaguars' senior-laden group that ran to the 4A state title game last season.

"A lot of young kids don't understand what the playoffs are all about," Evans said.

In a way, neither do the Cougars, who will play their second-ever playoff game Friday. Berg said that even with a big group of seniors, Coronado is having way too much fun in this impromptu winning season to let any newfound expectations be a bother.

"We don't feel any pressure because we're not supposed to be here," Berg said. "Anything we do from here on out is a bonus."