After opening the PAC-5 League season with a dominating win over Atascadero on Oct. 14, the Arroyo Grande football team spent the next two weeks trying to recapture the swagger it had in the first half of the season, a six-week stretch during which the Eagles were being lauded as one of the best teams on the Central Coast.

A week after crushing the Greyhounds, Arroyo Grande suffered a stunning homecoming defeat to Paso Robles, then slogged through the first two quarters of its game road game against Righetti two weeks ago before scoring 20 consecutive points for a solid, but certainly unspectacular, win.

The Eagles had a bye last week, which came at a perfect time. It gave the players and coaching staff time to reflect on the season, rest various minor injuries and re-focus on the tasks at hand: beating San Luis Obispo on Friday night and head into the CIF playoffs with some much-needed momentum.

The Eagles' 42-0 victory over their arch-rivals at Doug Hitchen Stadium was impressive in many ways, but the most important aspect that became apparent from watching the contest was that the bye week definitley revitalized the squad. The Eagles looked like a totally different team Friday than the team that showed up against Paso Robles and Righetti.

“(The bye) was huge,” said senior defensive lineman Justin Fibich. “Yeah, we probably would have liked to have played last week, but not playing was probably better for us in the long run. The seniors have never lost to San Luis Obispo, and that's huge for us. That's something we'll be able to look back on (wide pride).”

It was evident that Arroyo Grande (7-2, 3-1), which tied for second in league with Atascadero and will enter the CIF playoffs next week as a No. 2 seed, was refreshed because the big plays that it was making earlier in the season but not lately returned Friday.

Quarterback Matt Lynch, making his second start of the season, ran the mid-line option to perfection, tallying 138 yards, including a 44-yard run early in the second quarter, and two touchdowns.

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DeAngelo Waller made sure there would be no second-half letdown for the Eagles as he took the second-half opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown to give his team a 28-0 advantage.

And in case anyone forgot, zipback James Valez is still one of the area's biggest big-play threats. After running for only 19 yards in his first seven carries, Valez took a handoff, burst through a seam on the right side of the line and used his trademark speed to outrun the Tigers' secondary down the right sideline for an 82-yard touchdown run to put the Eagles ahead 35-0 with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter.

“We used the bye week to iron out some creases in our offense,” Valez said. “With the type of defense San Luis Obispo runs, we had to know it well, so we mostly worked on our blocking schemes. And we got the spring back in our legs. It's been a long, hard season, and we haven't had a lot of time off, so we needed to rest up.”

The spring was back in the legs of the Eagles' defense as well. The unit, which has undergone a significant amount of personnel changes in recent weeks, played its best game of the season, pitching its first shutout of the season and holding Tigers (2-7-1, 0-4) running back Stuart Hill, who entered the game with a league-leading 1,088 rushing yards, to just 87.

“That's our first shutout,” Fibich said, “and it came against the team we most wanted to get it against.”

Added Arroyo Grande head coach Jon Huss: “The defense was motivated to play well against the cross-town rivals. The kids are elated (about the win). For the coaches, it's been hard because there was so much work to do. San Luis Obispo is well coached, and they've worked real hard. We're enjoying this.”

The Tigers' season came to a disappointing, controversial ending. Head coach Craig Winninghoff wasn't in the stadium Friday night and was replaced by long-time Tigers coach Vic Ecklund. Neither Ecklund or anyone else connected with the San Luis Obispo program commented on Winninghoff's situation Friday.

“We were just overmatched in some areas,” Ecklund said. “Our players played hard, but it's too bad for the seniors to go out this way. I'm proud of the way we played, and we represented ourselves well.”

Nov. 12, 2005