The Star-News offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
SPECIAL TEAMS PLAY HELPS LIFT SOUTHWESTERN COLLEGE FOOTBALL TEAM TO 5-0 START, NO. 3 STATE RANKING
The NFL is chock full of fantastic finishes. That’s what makes games so watchable.
The Sept. 28 contest between the Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys was no exception.
Playing in Macarena Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Cowboys tied the game, 31-31, on a 23-yard field goal by Brandon Aubrey with just seven seconds to play.
Headed to overtime?
No way! Too much time.
Rather than attempting a kickoff in the landing zone to run out the clock, the Cowboys opted for a touch-back that placed the ball at the 35-yard line.
That turned out to be a mistake as Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson, one of the more crafty signal-callers in the league, still had time to complete a comeback.
Jackson promptly wired a 27-yard pass to Zay Flowers to the Dallas 38-yard line and immediately called timeout with one second left in regulation. Ravens placer-kicker Tyler Loop then came on the field to kick a game-winning 56-yard field goal as time expired.
The kick started to veer left but made it just inside the upright for the walk-off victory.
Loop ran off the field twirling his finger in the air to capture the excitement of the moment. Even Jackson could be seen smiling and jumping up and down while joining in the celebration.
34-31 Ravens.
The television announcer aptly termed the stunning finish a “Trio in Rio.”
The game was a perfect advertising vehicle to promote the league to international fans, of whom an announced crowd if 72,792 witnessed the electrifying end to the back-and-forth contest.
Prior to Aubrey’s game-tying field goal, Baltimore had taken a 31-28 lead on a three-yard touchdown pass from Jackson to rookie tight end Matt Hibner.
Prior to that, the Cowboys had taken a 28-24 lead on a nine-yard scoring run by KaVontae Turpin to start the scoring in the furious fourth quarter.
Dallas opened up an early 13-0 advantage before the Ravens went ahead by scores of 17-10 and 24-13. Dallas came back with 15 unanswered points to tie.
The game featured five field goals, seven touchdowns, six extra-point kicks and one two-point conversion.
Special teams play remains a key part of the game.
There are four kickers on the Southwestern College team: place-kicker Daniel Meadows, holder Max Brodbeck, punter Aaron Lee and kickoff specialist Steven Benson. Meadows, Brodbeck and Benson are all freshmen right out of high school while Lee red-shirted his freshman year at UC Davis.
Each has their own responsibilities and have contributed to the Jaguars’ 5-0 start and No. 3 state ranking.
Meadows, a 2026 graduate of Millennium High School in Goodyear, Ariz.(Phoenix metropolitan area), leads Southwestern in season scoring with 47 points — five-of-nine on field goals (55.6 percent) and 32-of-32 on PAT extra points (100 percent).
He played soccer and football in high school. In 14 varsity games, he averaged 51.9 yards on kickoffs (longest 65 yards) with 21 touch-backs. He logged 70 kicking points as a senior when he was 58-of-66 on extra points (87.9 percent) and four-of-six on field goals (67 percent) with a longest effort of 45 yards.
He collected 10 kicking points (one field goal and seven PAT) in a 52-10 win over Grossmont College on Sept. 5. He logged nine points in a 27-0 season opening win at College of the Canyon on Aug. 29. He had eight kicking points in a 40-12 win at Mt. San Jacinto on Sept. 19. He punched through six PAT in a 44-42 triple overtime tiebreaker win over conference rival San Diego Mesa on Sept. 26.
He also saw kickoff duties in two games: 58.5 average on two kickoffs against Grossmont College and 56.3 average on six kickoffs in a 34-14 win over visiting Long Beach City on Sept. 12.
Lee (Point Loma High School) has a 38.7-yard punting average with a long of 47 yards so far in this season’s tour of duty with the Jaguars. He opened the season with a 46-yard punt at Canyons and averaged 47.0 yards on two punts against Grossmont College. He averaged 46.3 yards on three punts against Long Beach.
Benson (Christian High School) took nine kickoffs in the Jaguars’ triple overtime win over Mesa with two touch-backs. He averaged 62.7 yards on six kickoffs in a 27-0 season opening win at Canyons and averaged 55.9 yards in the 52-10 win over visiting Grossmont College and 60.0 yards on seven kickoffs in a 40-12 win at Mt. San Jacinto College. He took nine kickoffs in the Jaguars’ triple overtime win over conference rival Mesa College with two touch-backs.
“It was a great game to be a part of,” Benson said. “I’m just grateful to be out here, be a part of this team and be able to kick a few times and make an impact in some way. That feeling, at the end of the game, is nothing like it.”
It’s not as easy as it looks.
There is a specific snapper who is different from the center on offense. There is a field goal long snapper and a punt long snapper. Kyle Hima (Steele Canyon High School) serves that duty.
The field goal unit sets up seven yards behind the snapper while the punter sets up 24 yards from the snapper.
Everything has to align perfectly for the kick to split the uprights, starting with the snap from center.
“A lot has to go correct in a narrow space of time — about 1.6 seconds,” assessed Brodbeck. “First the snap. The long-snapper is the most under-looked portion of it all. They have to squat and look through their legs while hanging their head upside down, all while snapping a ball seven yards in less than 0.3 seconds. Not to mention they have to have perfect placement for the holder to catch, and repeat it hundreds of times over the course of a season.
The catch and hold come next.
“The holder needs to catch the ball and place it exactly where you marked the kicker to line up,” Brodbeck explained. “If you miss this spot by even an inch, the ball will go left or right depending where the ball is placed. The holder may need to spin the ball if the snap gives laces, too. You also have to have chemistry with the kicker, know exactly how they like the ball tilted or angled when they kick it.”
The actual kick finishes it.
“The kicker needs to have perfect technique — hit the ball in the right spot, follow through effectively,” Brodbeck noted.
A lot can go wrong on a field goal, however.
“Bad snaps, whether off target, or wobbly, it makes it very hard for the holder to catch and get down in time,” Brodbeck said. “Bad holds, even with a good snap, the holder could bobble or miss the catch completely, or place it in a bad spot.
“The kick is where the most can go wrong. There are so many tiny details that go into making a kick right or wrong. Plant foot too far back, contact too high or low on the ball, crunching when ball is kicked, poor follow through, and so much more.
“Kicking and punting are very much like golf in that regard — one tiny thing goes wrong and it’s a complete shank. There is also always the possibility of the O-line blocking poorly and getting the kick blocked.”
Brodbeck grew up most of his life in Lakewood, Colo., a suburb on the western foothills of Denver.
“I started playing soccer around the age of 3 or 4, but I always loved football, too,” he said. “I would go outside and throw the ball with my Dad every chance I could get. I’m really grateful for that.
“In seventh grade, I moved to Park City, Utah, and would later play for Park City High School my freshman, sophomore and junior seasons. My parents didn’t let me play football until I was in eighth grade for my safety, but even before that the game was a big part of my life.
“When I did start to play, I played tight end and middle linebacker, which I was really good at because I was very big for my age and already knew the game pretty well as well as kicker and punter. My sophomore year I switched to only punting and kicking, although I was pretty good at other positions, I figured my best chance to play football at the next level was kicking.
“Throughout my high school career I was the holder for multiple FBS Division 1 kickers, which translates to my holding ability now. My senior year, I transferred to Skyline High School in Salt Lake City, where I was a captain on the team as well as breaking the school extra-points record and school season kicking points record.
As a senior, he logged 65 kicking points, was 85.5 percent on PAT extra-points and 50 percent on field goals.
“I played soccer as well when I was younger. Playing it up until high school builds a foundation of the muscles necessary for long, powerful kicks. I played goalkeeper, and was known on the team for long high punts out of the box. People would say it looked more like a football punt than a soccer punt.
“I take satisfaction in punting because hitting a perfect ball is so satisfying,” Brodbeck continued. “Being able to kick a perfect turnover spiral is pretty cool … or a ball the moves 15 yards left to right in its flight … or a ball that stops dead when it lands. There’s a lot of opportunities for different ways to punt, and when you do it perfect, it’s very satisfying.”
Lee is a well-rounded athlete. He started playing football when he was 7 for the Point Loma Pointers Pop Warner youth team and participated in the Pop Warner Super Bowl when he was in fifth and sixth grades (2016 and 2017).
He also played baseball for 12 years, stopping after his freshman year in high school.
“Between those two sports, I played soccer, basketball and rugby, but baseball and football were my main two,” he said. “For baseball I was a center fielder, which I excelled due to my speed and ability to track down fly balls. My speed helped me with on-base -percentage and stealing bases.
“Throughout my football career I played wide receiver, running back, quarterback, kicker, punter, safety, corner and punt/kickoff returner. My main positions were wide receiver, safety, kicker, punter and kickoff/punt returner throughout high school, being on varsity since my sophomore year.
“I excelled at receiver due to me and my Dad working on it since I was a little kid and my speed, where I was a big deep threat on our team. At safety I was able to read the defense well and get the job done, and kicking I’ve done since I started playing football because I was able to do it. Me kicking stuck on every team I’ve been at and have gotten better and better throughout the years.”
Lee appeared in 32 varsity games from 2021-23. He logged 34 passing yards, 388 rushing yards with eight touchdowns and 649 receiving yards with 11 touchdowns.
He scored 23 touchdowns, including 14 his junior year. He tacked on 137 kicking points for a grand total of 277 points. He was 107-of-114 in PAT extra-point conversions (93.9 percent) and 10-for-15 in field goals (67 percent) with a longest kick splitting the uprights at 46 yards.
On defense, he logged 32 tackles with one interception and one fumble recovery.
He averaged 34.2 yards on kickoffs, with a long of 69 yards, and 67 touch backs. He averaged 30.2 yards on punts, with a long of 40 yards, placing two kicks inside the 20-yard line.
Lee was fairly fearless. He averaged 27.9 yards on kickoff returns (longest 96 yards) and 21.6 yards on punt returns (longest 55 yards). He returned three kicks for touchdowns.
A four-star recruit out of high school, he red-shirted at UC Davis as a freshman. He is playing in his final season at Southwestern College.
Benson also has experience in both soccer and football. In fact, he won San Diego Section championships in both sports — as a junior in soccer and senior in football.
“It was fun,” Benson said in regard to the dual CIF titles.
In 24 soccer games, he scored 39 points (15 goals, nine assists); in17 games as a junior, he scored 12 goals and four assists for 28 points. He was the team’s MVP both seasons.
Being a place-kicker was something new to Benson as a senior at Christian. He admits he’s still learning much about the craft.
As a first-year place-kicker in football, he made 27-of-30 PAT (90 percent) and six-of-eight field goals (75 percent) with a longest effort of 51 yards and 45 kicking points.
He logged four PAT in 28-14 win over top-seeded Central Union in the Division III final at Southwestern College.
Benson’s primary duties are as the kickoff specialist.
“I run through practice with the scheme they have, just hit it as deep as possible,” he said. “The biggest thing for me is my leg strength. I feel I’m very consistent on building my consistency. My second year of kicking, I’m really getting into my form. It’s my 20th game. I’m excited to see where this takes me.”
