Servite gets the best of Rettig

NORWALK - Chase Rettig's only San Clemente season faded to black Friday night, amid further confirmation that blocking and tackling — not pitching — is 90 percent of football.

Third-seeded Servite belabored the Tritons quarterback from snap to whistle at Cerritos College and won this Pac-5 first-round playoff game, 38-10.

But most players on both teams will be watching Rettig on ESPN in the indeterminate future, and he hopes Boston College is never overmatched like this.

"We know how good he is, and that he's committed to Boston College," said Christian Long, a Servite defensive back who has been playing the past three weeks with two broken metacarpals, heavily wrapped. "We watched a lot of film, and then we just did what we usually do."

Rettig dropped into San Clemente's life in January. He had been quarterbacking at La Salle of Pasadena. His father, Mark, is in the commercial construction business in Irvine. Since Mark didn't have a Hovercraft, this became an untenable situation.

"It took him two hours to go to work and two more to come home," Rettig said Thursday. "He could never go to my practices. He had to leave early to even come to my games."

He could have hitched a ride with the recruiters. "Chase was a pretty advanced kid," said Eric Patton, the San Clemente coach. "He even had his own Web site."

And Rettig could have stayed at La Salle and lit up the sky against different competition. Instead he jumped into a bigger pool and still threw 18 touchdown passes.

"The size and the speed and everything else are just different," Rettig said. "But I think it's going to help me later on."

"La Salle has a very good program and runs a lot of the same things we do," Patton said as he wrapped up game preparation. "But there, Chase was the tallest kid in his team picture. He's had to make adjustments here. In the games we've needed to win to get into the playoffs, like Edison and Capistrano Valley, he's been excellent.

"Against Mission Viejo, it was different. He had three interceptions in the span of six passes, I think. The game got pretty fast for him.

"But he's exactly what you want in a pro-style offense. He makes all the throws, and he's a good athlete. We were looking at using Travis Wilson at quarterback and, in fact, he played in the first game this year and we won. He's going to be really good. He'll be the guy for the next two years.

"But he would have been a work in progress, and Chase was ready right now. Fortunately Chase made sure he was one of the guys. He blended right in; he's a good student. A lot of times you don't see that."

Patton also conceded that "everything has to go right" for the Tritons to hang with Servite, which has only lost to Edison. And one very big thing went wrong when left tackle and team captain Scott Goebel recently went down for the season.

Rettig couldn't get the Tritons into the end zone against Servite until 3:02 remained. Still, if you looked hard through the three-and-outs Friday night, you saw enough.

On an early third-and-3, Rettig went to second receiver Patrick Dorris and speared with a very pro-looking, 15-yard pass. A little later he zapped one to Dominic Ela for 16 yards down the middle.

Rettig, at 6-foot-3 and 205, also showed he could hoof it when necessary, and he got up every time the rude Servite defense knocked him down.

Rettig also extended a quarterbacking tradition at San Clemente. He followed Duke DeLancellotti, the 2008 quarterback who is now at Cal Poly SLO. Patton also has coached Cole Bergqvist, who did well at Montana, and Mike Cook who went to Harvard. Beau Budde was in the same league but couldn't overcome injuries at Saddleback College.

But again, Servite's Cody Fajardo was the winning pitcher Friday night, and he did it with an innate feel for escaping the posse.

Fajardo ran for two touchdowns and hit Rudy Guerrero with a touchdown pass. He also got the ball to three promising Friars sophomores: workhorse running back Sean DeRosa and receivers Ainslie Johnson and Sam Hunt (5-foot-5, 190).

"Cody's got a great knack for making something happen when things don't go exactly right," Servite coach Troy Thomas said, before kickoff. "There are certain guys like that, who just understand the game and make plays."

Servite will be making those plays against Long Beach Poly next week. For San Clemente, it was time to adjourn a season, and to offer thanks for sudden visitors, and intolerable commutes.