The style of football Cabrillo coach Don Cross likes best is defense.

When he took command of the CHS grid program three years ago he inherited a team where defense had become an afterthought to clever offensive trickery.

That has changed.

Friday night/s gritty 9-6 victory over pass-minded Dos Pueblos seemed to say "hey, we play defense at Cabrillo."

"This ranks right up there with our 14-7 win over Morro Bay," said a smiling Cross with his brother-in-law draped over him like Conq defenders draped over DP quarterback Conner Rehage for the previous two hours.

The blitzing Cabrillo defense swarmed over Rehage and company for eight sacks, a blocked field goal and a blocked punt for a safety.

Four of the sacks, and the blocked punt came from Steve De St. Jean who finished out the evening with two sacks in two plays, first part of a group jail break with Vai Taua and Josh Sanders, and then a solo job so powerful in execution it drew exclamations from the black-and-gold crowd.

"It was great getting the sacks to end the game," the all-league noseguard said.

"We knew DP would be tough. All week long we didn/t slack off."

De St. Jean alternated between the center of the defensive line and the outside, but wherever he was he turned on the jets.

"We said last Saturday we/re going to blitz," said Cross.

"We went for speed up front and the kids executed perfectly. After a while the kid (Rehage) is going to start throwing sooner."

Rehage connected on 11 of 19 passes for 108 yards but suffered 41 yards in losses on the sacks.

On third and fourth downs in the fourth quarter Rehage threw incomplete with Darnell Womack, the blocker of the field goal, in his face, he was sacked by McKissack and Caleb Meza, he threw incomplete with De St. Jean bearing down on him, he successfully completed a 12-yard pass to Josh Cohen, he was sacked by De St. Jean, sacked by De St. Jean, Taua and Sanders, and sacked again by De St. Jean.

"I would have done the same thing," said Charger coach Jeff Uyesaka, adding that his team had worked on pass protection during the week.

"It wasn/t as if they were sending seven or eight. They just sent five or six. It/s something we do every day in practice, but we just couldn/t make the adjustment. They surprised us as to how good they were."

Uyesaka also lamented the 40-yard Brian Gregory-to-Eric Evans pass in the second quarter which put Cabrillo at the Charger 1-yard line and led to a Taua plunge for the Conqs/ only TD.

"Third and 13 and we/re caught over the top. We said all week we were not going to let them throw over our heads and they still did. There were two guys on him!"

In fairness to the Charger defenders Gregory laid the ball perfectly where nobody but Evans could reach it and even then the little senior barely got his fingertips on it.

The Chargers fought back as Rehage threw for a 30-yard TD pass to Paul Starr late in the quarter to cut the Conq lead to 7-6 but Shane Micheel/s PAT try was wide.

Cabrillo added two points on the safety in the third quarter when De St. Jean blocked a punt by Nathan Weighill into and out of the end zone.

Charger runner Matt Houston totalled 81 yards moving the ball effectively in the middle of the field but in scoring territory DP coaches appeared to go more to the air.

DP had battled San Luis Obispo to a 24-24 tie two weeks ago. They are now 0-2-1.

Cabrillo/s offense was relatively unproductive as well, gaining only 145 total yards with wheelhorse Taua limited to 40 yards on 15 carries.

"I/m not worried about the offense," Cross said. "We just got out of sync. We/ll just have to work on that."

The victory gives Cabrillo a 3-0 record as the Conqs enter Los Padres League action next week opposite Santa Ynez.

Notes: De St. Jean was voted MVP of the contest in a close contest with linebacker Colby McKissack…. In the JV game Dos Pueblos prevailed 34-19 despite touchdowns by Bennie Garrett on a 25-yard TD reception, Trevor Wagonseller on 30-yard sweep and a keeper by quarterback Ryan McGinty.

September 25, 2005