Monarchs, Vikings battle for CSL supremacy

Bill Walsh’s 49ers vs. Mike Ditka’s Bears.

Peyton Manning’s Colts vs. Ben Roethlisberger’s Steelers.

Those games featured offensive attacks that resembled each other more than tonight’s CSL battle does.

Exeter prefers an old school, grind-it-out approach while Kingsburg is a card-carrying member of the spread offense fan club.

The methods are different but the results are the same. The Monarchs and Vikings enter tonight’s game with 8-0 records with the winner taking home the CSL title and a likely top seed in the Division IV playoff bracket.

Last season, just six points separated these teams in their two matchups with the Vikings taking the regular-season game 26-22 and the Monarchs prevailing in the Valley quarterfinals 26-24. 

Exeter coach Ben White is confident in his team’s ability to contain this offense the same way it did in the playoffs.

“We haven’t faced anyone like that (this year), but they’ve been running this offense the last few years and we’ve beaten them the last couple of years with it,” White said. “We kind of know what to expect. Our guys just have to go out there and play disciplined football and not give up the big play.”

Exeter’s opponents have specialized in giving up the big play this season. The Monarchs average 40 points a game and all-everything running back Cameron Loeffler averages more than four touchdowns (34 total) in each. 

White doesn’t see the Vikings being able to contain Loeffler.

“We’ve got the most physical running back in the whole area who wears guys down,” he said. “They can’t catch him, they can’t tackle him, they can’t assimilate him in practice. So when they see him in a game, it’s a whole different animal. They don’t have a scout-team guy like that unless they get someone out of college and that’s illegal, so they can’t do that.”

Loeffler has worn down every top team the Monarchs have played, mostly in the second halves. Against Taft, Exeter led just 10-7 at halftime but rattled off three touchdowns to bury the Wildcats 31-7. Division II Frontier felt Taft’s pain, as Exeter again rattled off three second-half TDs to win 28-14. 

The Selma Bears were the biggest victim of the Monarchs’ late-game surges. Selma was matching every Exeter score, trailing just 31-28 going into the locker room, but watched as Exeter turned that shootout into a 62-31 blowout.

“I just think we’re more physical than these other teams,” White said. “We just wear them down in the second half.”

The second-half explosions don’t hide the team’s one glaring weakness, however. In three games this season, the Monarchs have surrendered a touchdown on the first play.

“That’s been a hard thing (to stop),” White said. “We always like to make a comeback. Hopefully they don’t score on the first play, but if they did, I wouldn’t be surprised at all.”

Exeter’s defense, which gives up less than 12 points per game, will face likely its toughest obstacle in Kingsburg’s aerial attack.

The Vikings haven’t crushed their opponents in the way the Monarchs have, but quarterback Tyler Bray has accounted for 16 touchdowns (13 through the air), 10 of which going to 6-foot-3 junior wide receiver Dylan Newbill. 

Newbill has 680 receiving yards and five of his mates have more than 100. 

The Monarch secondary features experience at the corners and ball-hawking ability at the safeties. Austin Albison and Loeffler have had three multi-interception games between them while cornerbacks Pedro Saldana and Clay James have five years of starting experience together.

White trusts his secondary to keep the big plays to a minimum.

“We’ve got good DBs,” White said. “We’ve got Cameron back there most of the time. We’ve got Austin Albison. We’ve got athletes at every position. Every guy out there knows what they’re doing and they’ve been doing it for a while.

“We want to make them earn everything they get. We’re gonna play our safeties back a little bit and make them throw it underneath and make them earn all their yards.”

The game may be for a league championship, but White isn’t ready to open his entire playbook just to win it, as bigger things lie ahead.

It’d be important, but it’s not as important as a Valley championship, so we’re not going to put all our eggs in one basket tomorrow just to win this game,” he said. “If something were to happen, we wouldn’t just sacrifice everything we’ve done just to win this game. Exeter hasn’t won a championship since 1995 and haven’t been undefeated since 1970, so we’re just trying to turn this whole football program around.”