Yaden, Kluwe Make This Victory Special

Football coaches harp about the importance of special teams from the first day of spring practice. It’s such a critical element and no team is unaffected by the punting and kicking game over the course of a season.

And on a single night, not even the all-stars can escape that fact.

That was evident Friday at the 41st Orange County North-South all-star game, where Kennedy’s Steve Yaden turned into a minor hero and Los Alamitos’ Chris Kluwe continued to be a major one.

And Woodbridge’s Shane Harris knew that a poorly punted ball is a disaster.

Yaden, who will attend Cerritos College in the fall, was the Empire League’s offensive player of the year. A first-team all-county receiver, he returned a kickoff 95 yards for a school record this season.

He almost had another touchdown return Friday, catching a low punt off the foot of Harris and returning it 61 yards to the South 19-yard line. It set up the first of two field goals by Kluwe in the last two minutes of the half, providing the North with a 13-0 lead in its 13-7 victory.

Kluwe, who kicked a field goal to win the California-Texas all-star game last month, kicked field goals of 37 and 34 yards. His second field goal came after Harris kicked the ball off the side of his foot, netting 14 yards from his own 8. Kluwe missed on attempts of 50 and 45 yards.

“Special teams play was huge,” said North Coach John Turek of Troy. “Yaden and [La Habra’s Josh Herrera] both had big returns, and we forced [Harris] into some bad punts that created good field position.

“It didn’t happen by accident. Going into the game, when we talked to the kids initially, we told them we were going to concentrate on special teams, and we worked hard on it.”

Harris said the same was true at South practice.

“Even in an all-star game, the first thing [coaches] said was that special teams was going to win it,” said Harris, who will attend Saddleback. “That was pretty much what happened here tonight. Special teams was a pretty big thing.”

Yaden’s long return was the lightning rod. “I didn’t see anything,” he said. “I just caught the ball and ran.”

It was basic football. “They out-hustled us,” said Marina’s Ray Mietkiewicz, “and they outplayed us on special teams. They made the plays.”