Camarillo's rush defense in the spotlight tonight
ACHS opens playoffs on the road against Moorpark running back Darrell Scott
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

PLAYER-Rio Mesa senior running back Malachi Lewis rushed for 1,126 yards and scored 21 touchdowns during the regular season as the Spartans captured the Pacific View League championship.

Camarillo's football team has gone through a lot. The Scorpions couldn't play on their home field in September, lost starting quarterback Samson Szakacsy for much of the season with a leg injury, and dropped five of their first six games to begin the year.

Camarillo regrouped and ended the season strong by winning three of its last four games, and now the Scorpions are in the postseason.

Not only does ACHS believe they deserve to still be playing, they think they can beat the favored Moorpark Musketeers tonight at Moorpark High in the first round of the CIFSouthern Section Division IV playoffs.

"We're going to go in there believing we can win," Camarillo head coach Dennis Riedmiller said. "If a team doesn't go into a game believing they can win, then they shouldn't be out there because they are going to lose 49-0."

To beat the Musketeers, Camarillo will have to do more than just believe in itself; they will have to stop one of the best running backs in the state, Darrell Scott.

"You can watch all the film on him that's possible and it still won't matter," Riedmiller said. "All you can hope for is to tackle him well. If you try to tackle him with just one arm, he will have no problem taking it off for you. I thought Malachi (Lewis) of Rio Mesa was a good running back for Rio Mesa, who we played last week. But Scott is in a league by himself."

Senior linebacker Samuel Lyche agreed the defense would have to step up.

"We are going to have to have 11 people on the ball swarming them on every play the entire game," Lyche said. "Everyone needs to just do their job and not think about being an individual hero. We have to make our reads and if everyone does that we should be okay."

ACHS comes into the playoffs having played well the last month.

"After we lost 18-16 to Hueneme, it seemed everyone on the team started taking losing to heart, and they didn't like the taste of it," Riedmiller said. "The team realized that nobody is going to come in to our games, lie down and give us the win. We would have to work hard and earn it."

Riedmiller told his team to forget what has happened during the regular season and concentrate on the game at hand.

"It's a brand new beginning for us," Riedmiller said. "All the stuff that happened during the regular season-the wins and losses, the stats-none of that matters anymore. Everyone is zero and zero. You play to win one game. If you win that game, you get another. Just don't lose."

Tonight's game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.