CRAWFORD GAVE NEWBURY PARK OFFENSIVE DIVERSITY; TAILBACK IN PANTHERS RECORD BOOK.Byline: Chris Cocoles Staff Writer The starting quarterback, Chris Lombardo, was hobbled - on the bench with an ankle injury that ended his season after two games. The backup quarterback, Cameron Merrill, was tossed into duty as the starter for one of the area's most traditional passing programs while recovering from a separated shoulder  This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.Please help recruit one or [ improve this article] yourself. See the talk page for details. . Newbury Park High had no choice but to establish a ground game. Enter Marcus Crawford. The junior tailback tail·back n. Football The back on an offensive team who lines up farthest from the line of scrimmage. tailback Noun Brit a queue of traffic stretching back from an obstruction did more than give the Panthers a new option on offense. Crawford broke the school's season rushing record set last season by Ryan Shipton (1,250 yards). Entering Friday's Division IV playoff play·off also play-off n. Sports 1. A final game or series of games played to break a tie. 2. A series of games played to determine a championship. Noun 1. opener against Righetti, Crawford has totaled 1,502 yards and 12 touchdowns. And with a much more polished Merrill at quarterback, Newbury Park has discovered offensive diversity. ``Chris got hurt. Merrill's here. He was a little shaky the first few games, but we've all started jelling and getting our stuff together,'' Crawford said. Newbury Park coach George Hurley George Hurley (born September 4 1958 in Brockton, Massachusetts) is a drummer noted for his work with The Minutemen and fIREHOSE. Hurley's powerful style brought a sense of musicianship to the genre, paving the way for new possibilities in underground music. , who simply loves to throw the football, had to scramble To encode (encrypt) data in order to make it indecipherable without having a secret key to "unlock" it. The term came from the early days of cryptography which camouflaged analog transmissions with secret frequency patterns. entering the Panthers' third game against Buena. The entire offensive philosophy, right down to stressing the importance of run blocking to the offensive linemen n. pl. 1. the football players who line up on the line of scrimmage. Noun 1. linemen - the football players who line up on the line of scrimmage , had to be revamped in less than a week of practice. ``It took 3-4 weeks for us to get used to run blocking. The linemen were used to pass blocking. It's harder to run block,'' Hurley Hurley has become the English version of at least three distinct original Irish names: the Ó hUirthile, part of the Dál gCais tribal group, based in Clare and North Tipperary; the Ó Muirthile, based around Kilbritain in west Cork; and the OhIarlatha, from the district of said. ``It's something that we didn't work on much at all in the summer and then we had to learn it in three days.'' Gone was a Newbury Park tradition of lining up four wide receivers and a single-back set. A blocking fullback was added and for the first time since 1991 Newbury Park played with a tight end. Running plays that were normally run one out of every 10 snaps in a Panthers practice had to be repeated nine times. ``The first five games it was sort of uneven. Sort of unbalanced. But these last five games things started coming together really well,'' Crawford said. ``It's like coach Hurley said, it's better to peak right now and be ready for the playoffs than to peak earlier and start coming down.'' Crawford, who averaged 27 rushing attempts in the Panthers' 10 regular-season games, saved many of his best performances for the big games of October and November. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound transfer from Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. rushed for 241 yards on Oct. 22 against Moorpark, 192 on Nov. 5 against Agoura and 138 last week against his old school Thousand Oaks in a 28-6 win that clinched second place in the league for Newbury Park. Arriving from Thousand Oaks for the spring semester se·mes·ter n. One of two divisions of 15 to 18 weeks each of an academic year. [German, from Latin (cursus) s , Crawford was among several candidates to fill the starting tailback job that was created upon Shipton's graduation Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the associated ceremony. The date of event is often called degree day. The event itself is also called commencement, convocation or invocation. . ``We knew he could be a very good running back,'' Hurley said. ``We saw him last year playing defense for T.O. and he had all the speed and the strength.'' When Merrill was struggling to regain his passing stroke, Crawford was a workhorse work·horse n. 1. Something, such as a machine, that performs dependably under heavy or prolonged use: "the 50-year-old DC-3 ... , routinely getting 30-35 carries. But Hurley is now more comfortable letting Merrill throw the football, and while Thousand Oaks was sending nine defenders to the line to contain Crawford's ability to run, Merrill was throwing four touchdown passes. ``I knew when I came here, the passing game of this school opens up the run . . . When you have a pass-oriented offense, take Westlake. They throw the ball, and they come and can run with Julian (Lambert). It's really balanced,'' Crawford said. ``The first few games we started running more, and then once Merrill got used to everything we started coming out and maybe running like 20-30 times.'' Crawford had 21 carries in the Thousand Oaks win, averaging 6.5 yards. Merrill attempted 32 passes, just the kind of balance Hurley craves with this team. The rushing and passing totals were almost identical against the Lancers lanc·er n. 1. A cavalryman armed with a lance. 2. A member of a regiment originally armed with lances. 3. lancers (used with a sing. verb) a. A kind of quadrille. b. . Merrill passed for 185 yards and the Panthers finished with 184 on the ground. In the regular season, the Panthers were in the top 10 in total offense among area schools, rushing for 1,741 yards and throwing for 1,572. ``If he can get 20-25 carries a game, that's perfect for Marcus,'' Hurley said. Crawford still figures to be busy as the Panthers will try to avenge a·venge tr.v. a·venged, a·veng·ing, a·veng·es 1. To inflict a punishment or penalty in return for; revenge: avenge a murder. 2. a shocking first-round loss to Ventura in 1998. Newbury Park isn't the heavy favorite it was last season. And that's a role Crawford and the Panthers prefer this time. ``We know not too many people are believing in us right now. We just want to come out here and prove ourselves and show them we can do it,'' Crawford said. ``We're definitely coming out with a pretty balanced attack on offense.'' CRAWFORD FILE School: Newbury Park Vitals vi·tals pl.n. 1. The vital body organs. 2. The parts that are essential to continued functioning, as of a system. : 6-2, 215-pound junior running back. 1999 highlights: Has gained 1,502 yards on 270 carries (5.6 avg.), 12 TDs. . . . Broke Ryan Shipton's school season record for yards (1,250 in 1998). . . . Gained 241 yards on 33 carries against Moorpark on Oct. 22. CAPTION(S): Photo, box PHOTO (color) Marcus Crawford broke Newbury Park's season rushing record. Evan Yee/Staff Photographer Box: Crawford File (see text) |
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