L.A. Baptist Air Force Grounded at Quartz Hill

QUARTZ HILL — John Albee had heard all about L.A. Baptist quarterback Peter Dirksen and receiver Tim Feirfeil.

The veteran Quartz Hill coach knew all about the Knights’ speed and precision on offense.

So Albee put in his top defenders when his Rebels faced the Knights on Friday night at Quartz Hill High.

That defense? His offense.

The Rebels used a punishing ground attack to maintain possession of the ball for 34 minutes 43 seconds and defeated the Knights, 28-18.

“Against these guys that’s what we wanted to do,” Albee said. “I like that kind of football.”

Three players had at least 50 rushing yards for the Rebels, who ran 56 plays to 32 for L.A. Baptist.

David Fetters led the attack with 123 yards in 17 carries. Jermaine Reyes had 67 yards in 18 carries and quarterback Erik Holtfreter had 70 yards in 11 carries.

Albee was pleased to get a victory after enduring a 3-7 season last year.

“It’s nice to get back on the winning track,” he said. “After last year it meant a lot to get a win.”

The Knights, when they got their hands on the ball, were effective.

Dirksen and Feirfeil connected on a 60-yard touchdown play late in the first half to pull the Knights to within 22-6 at halftime.

With Quartz Hill holding a 22-12 lead late in the third quarter, the Knights got to the Rebel four-yard line before running back Derek Watson mishandled a pitchout.

The Rebels recovered and sustained a 21-play drive that covered nine minute and seven seconds. It was capped by a 17-yard pass play from Holtfreter to Fetters on fourth and 16 to put the Rebels ahead, 28-12, with 3:23 left to play.

“This is a lot better than it could have been,” L.A. Baptist Coach Mark Bates said, referring to the fact that Quartz Hill, a school of about 3,000 students, plays in Southern Section Division II while L.A. Baptist has no more than 700 students and plays in Division XI.

“We made some mistakes, but we did some good things on both sides of the ball.”

One of those mistakes was during the coin flip. The Knights won the toss, but elected to kick. Since Quartz Hill lost the toss, the Rebels were given the choice of kicking or receiving in the second half. They chose to receive.

“I blew the coin flip,” Bates said. “That gave them an extra possession right there. But this is a confidence builder. It shows we can play with a big school.”

Dirksen completed 12 of 19 passes for 179 yards and a touchdown. Feirfeil caught six passes for 106 yards.