Lakewood Varsity Football vs Cabrillo

There was no doubt in my mind that our boys were going to close this night with a win, but in high school football you simply never know. Lakewood was going against Cabrillo who is undefeated for the season and coming into this match up with one thing on their mind - destroy Lakewood.

For the start Lakewood's defense dominated Cabrillo's offense stopping both their run and pass game. Although our boys put some good points on the board, we have a long way to go to be ready for the playoffs. Our offense has been slow to start and not very consistent, which is what their going to need when it comes time for the CIF playoffs. I have faith in our boys and know that have what it takes, they just need to be consistent on each drive and play.

Enjoy the below pictures which were taken with a Canon Mark IIn and a 300 f/2.8L. My camera was set to manual at ISO 3200, f/2.8, and a shutter of 1/400 - no flash was used.

Today I'm going to talk about the non-action shot. Although football (especially high school football) is packed with non-stop action full of big hits and bigger plays, it's also full of kids giving it everything they have to win a game. Whatever their reason (hopeful college recruitment / school pride / cross-town rivals / or simply for the love of the game) they get suited up each and every Friday night to play. Just prior to each play each athlete on the field gets set for the play to come. On offense they know their assignment and where the ball is going, they've identified their target and are ready to eliminate them to move the ball. On defense their watching the ball and reading the play. For them it's all about anticipation and knowing their opponent. Now I can't tell you what's going on in their minds prior to the ball snap, but I try to capture a shot that shows their intensity (without the action) and especially their focus. The below shots I hope display this and gives you something to strive for when shooting football at any level.

Lakewood JV Football vs Cabrillo

I was set to cover the JV game at home, but once I got to the school I found out the team we were playing didn't have a JV team, so I took the drive to the other school to cover the freshmen game.

I had terrible back light, but I did what I could to capture the best shots. Since I had such a high contrast in uniforms (white and a dark green) I decided to take a reading off of the white uniforms and then set my camera to manual to slightly overexpose the shots. For those shots where I had real bad back light and almost a haze on the shot, I simply increased my black clipping in Lightroom to bring back my colors and shadows.

Our defense was really getting through Cabrillo's offensive line so when Cabillo had the ball I would position myself down field behind the line of scrimmage to capture the D-line rushing. In the below shot of #71 he initially made the hit on the quarterback and while attempting to bring him down got ahold of the ball and ran it in for a touch down.

Lakewood Varsity vs Poly

This is the game we wait for each year. We know it will be the hardest game played and we would have to bring every tool we have to win it. As I said in my prior post this game determines who will take first and second place in the league. It doesn't matter when this game is played in the season as the team that wins is pretty much taking the league while the losing team will place second, although neither want anything to do with second place.

I am a Lakewood fan and I cover their football games and although I would very much love to see Lakewood bury them, Poly is a great team and if we give them any space they would take it and so much more. Also what I want more than anything is to have a great game of football between these two teams.

Well Lakewood or myself didn't get what we want. Although by the end of the first half Lakewood was up 14-10, it wasn't because of our offense. Our defense gave us all the points we had the first half and was holding Poly. If we were to win this game our offense would have to start moving that ball and put some points on the board, but this didn't happen. In the third quarter Poly came out and scored three times without Lakewood throwing anything back at them. Lakewood is usually a second half team, but this game they came out without drive or motivation, it wasn't until mid forth quarter that Lakewood started to play some football again. We did manage to score again on a great fast drive, but Poly had to much of a lead and we turned up the heat much to late.

Congratulations to the Poly team. Lakewood - keep your chin up and get ready for the next game. Let's get into the playoffs and turn that fire up again. Enjoy the pictures.

Lakewood JV vs Poly

This is the prequel to the most anticipated game of the season "Lakewood vs Poly". Now althoug h I say prequel to the most anticipated game I'm referring to the Lakewood and Poly fans, but by no means do I mean this JV game meant nothing. As a matter a fact I mean the complete opposite. While I was shooting this game a lot of Lakewood varsity players were on the sideline near the endzone towards the end of the game and things were becoming heated between these varsity players and the Poly players on the field. As staff was trying to get the Lakewood varsity players back to avoid a penality call I heard one varsity player said "This is only JV, it don't mean nothing". I thought about that statement and to be honest was a bit dissapointed in the player who made this statement. This game is just as important to these kids and their family up in the stands watching as any varsity game being played this season. This was the Lakewood / Poly match up and although it was JV, it was setting the tone for tonights varsity game at Vet's stadium.

Now with that said I want to get back to the players and this game. I have to say I get a bit nervous every year when it comes to this game (Lakewood vs Poly) and event mentioned that to one of Lakewood's trainers just prior to the start of the game. Poly is the team to beat and has been so throughout the six years I've been taking pictures for them and although we have one a game or two, we usually leave the field with a loss.

If a tone was to be set it was set by this game. Lakewood came out ready to play football and took charge of the game from the get go. By the end of the half it was 20-0 Lakewood. I don't think I've ever seen a game where Poly went scoreless for this long, but it was happening. Now we all have to remember that Poly plays great football and there's a reason why their the team to beat and they let Lakewood know that this game wasn't over by any means.

During the second half Poly came out with fire in their eyes and stopped Lakewood in their tracks while putting 13 points on the board. Now we were down to the last few minutes of the game with Poly stopping Lakewood most recent attempt to score to put more distance between them and Poly. Poly made a valient effort and drove the ball down to their 25yrd line with 1/10 of a second left in game time, but failed to do anything with it.

Simply put this was a great game of football by both teams and if tonight's varsity game is anything like this game, we are in for a night.

Now enjoy some shots from this game.

I may be over doing it, but I really like how these b&w images are coming out and continued with the below shots. Some shots in my mind just scream "B&W" .