FONTANA, CA – A sideline trio from Carter-Rialto High School, which included a school yearbook photographer, the team’s ball boy and a cheerleader advisor were asked a simple question.
Which Lions’ football player was most popular?
There was no hesitation when the answer came back that it had to be Lokeni Toailoa, a 6-foot, 1-inch, 212-pound senior linebacker, running back and occasional tight end for a seven-win, two-loss Carter team.
Carter was taking on A.B. Miller-Fontana on Thursday night in an important Citrus Belt League showdown – and Toailoa was a key factor in the Lions’ 55-20 triumph.
The Toailoa Bros., which includes Leni (6-2, 185), are both headed for UCLA, but that’s only part of the story. This week’s game between Redlands and Carter is for a Southern Section playoff berth.
The loser might be out.
When the 2015 season started, Carter was considered an easy selection for a post-season berth.
That was before defending CIF Division 2 state champion Redlands East Valley, a CBL rival, pummeled the third-ranked Lions, 50-0 – a game in which the Wildcats were ranked No. 4 in that same poll.
Some funny things started to happen around the CBL.
Cajon-San Bernardino (8-1, 5-1) beat REV (7-2, 5-1).
Yucaipa (7-2, 4-2) lost to Cajon, but had beaten Carter (7-2, 4-2).
REV had beaten Redlands (6-3, 4-2), which lost to Cajon.
And Citrus Valley-Redlands, which had beaten city rival Redlands last season, came nowhere close in this year’s duel with the Terriers.
At one point, five of the CBL’s eight teams were tucked into the Southern Section’s Inland Division Top 10 poll. Said Carter coach Alex Pierce: “I thought it was going to be that way in the pre-season. Anybody can beat anybody in this league.”
Pierce was on edge, knowing his team still had another victory to pull itself into the post-season after beating Miller by five TDs.
Miller’s football team was in no mood for being big-timed by a Lions squad.
Rebels’ QB Malik Flowers gave Miller an early 6-0 lead after Christian Rojas had recovered a first quarter fumble. After that, Pierce unloaded his full arsenal of offense, defense and special teams.
Marcus Strong, for instance, returned Brian Lemus’ punt 85 yards for a TD in the opening quarter.
Spencer Coleman took 24 handoffs to rack up 218 yards, including five TD runs of 1, 2, 25, 26 and 78 yards.
Then there was Lokeni Toailoa, who not only recovered two fumbles, but one he ripped out of the hands of Rebels’ ball carrier Tracy Crawford and returned 26 yards for another TD.
“They were marching the ball on us in the first half,” Toailoa said, “and they kept running to the same hole. They opened (a hole) up the size of Dallas. I saw the ball. The next thing I knew is that I was running down the field with it.”
As for defense, there had been a sparkling adjustment made against Flowers, whose 141 yards rushing (24 carries, TD) came mostly in the first half. In fact, he only had a dozen yards on five carries after the first half.
By second half, defensive tackle Isaiah Warner, safety Marquise Green, Lokeni Toailoa, linebacker Brent Hernandez and defensive end Ethan Howe all had a hand in tackling Flowers. In the opening half, Leni Toailoa sacked Flowers for a two-yard loss.
“Hats off to Flowers,” said Lokeni Toailoa. “We prepared all week for him, but there’s no way you can do the things in practice that he can do in a game.”
Even at 2-6, Miller was throwing rotating QBs – Flowers and Nathan Flores – into the game, battling back from a 28-6 deficit to make it 35-20 by halftime.
“Football’s not an easy game,” said Toailoa.
Prior to the game, Pierce was confident Coleman would play well.
“That’s the key guy that I’d keep my eye on,” said Pierce, the master of that night’s game plan. After one quarter, Coleman had 46 yards (two TDs) on eight carries, but the Lions know how to beat a defense.
There were sweeps left and right, blasts into the middle by Strong, Coleman, QB Sonny Robison and Toailoa and a boatload of physical blockers.
On Coleman’s 26-yard TD in the third quarter, junior guard Josh Nicolis pulled on a sweep right, leading the pathway downfield.
Eight minutes later, Warner pulled, leading on a sweep left with Coleman sprinting down the left sideline on his 78-yard.
Toailoa chuckled. “There aren’t a lot of teams that can stop that.”
Carter’s a brute force teams with speed and experience on its back.
Out of the CBL’s lineup that includes REV, Cajon, Yucaipa, Carter and Redlands, at least one team won’t make it. Three schools are guaranteed a berth in the five-league, 16-team field. Odds are that the one at-large (wild card) team will come from the CBL, but it might not.
“One team won’t make it,” said Pierce, his brow rising, “as hard as that is to believe.”
How was it possible, he was asked, to watch Carter get dumped, 50-0, by a REV team, then loses to Cajon by 20?
“That,” he said, “is high school football.”
