Anybody who has followed San Diego prep football in recent years knows that nothing comes easy in North County. With great coaches over the past 15 years including people like your Ed Burkes (Torrey Pines), Bob McAalisters (Carlsbad), and John Carrolls (Oceanside), combined with a strong talent pool, advancing to the CIF championship out of the North can be a daunting challenge.

For the La Costa Canyon Mavericks, Friday night's victory over the Carlsbad Lancers dishes them a shot at the section title, a first for an LCC football program that has come oh-so close in recent years. Their third straight semifinal appearance in as many years, advancing to Qualcomm symbolizes not only a great accomplishment this season, but rings in a new era of Maverick Football.

In previous years, La Costa Canyon has fielded good teams that have competed with the best football programs in San Diego County, but they've never been able to overcome the bad call or the unfortunate turnover. This year is a different story.

There is something different about the 2008 squad that differentiates them from every other team that has played in "the Canyon." This year's team is the hungriest, most ferocious group of players that have ever come together and represented the La Costa Canyon Rawhide nation.

Instead of creating opportunities to lose a game, the Mavericks are capitalizing on opportunities to win the game. Instead of taking the field and hoping to win, they are demanding to win - nothing else is satisfying nor acceptable in their minds.

Call it synergy, competitiveness, a knack for aggression, call it whatever you like - but after losing a heartbreaker to south section opponent Santa Margarita in the final minute of the game in week 4, the squad made adjustments and trudged forward, never looking back. Since that frustrating defeat - simply put - they have turned into a tenacious machine that has refused defeat. Darrin Brown's team is running on all cylinders heading into the championship game against the Escondido Cougars, a team who they defeated 21-17 earlier in the year. The word "defeat" doesn't even play part in their vernacular.

Traveling up and down the sidelines all season while reporting for this site, I have never heard players or coaches complain, bicker, or talk down to their teammates or players. There is an accountability system in play that has been developed by this special class of seniors. They do not play for the coaches, they do not play for the fans, they do not play for the administration, they do not play for an appearance on the Prep Pigskin Report. They play for each other, and that's it. It's a selfless demeanor that is not talking the talk, but walking the walk. This year's team has created a culture of winning.

The phrase that might best illustrate this new-found green and gold bravado is "Seek and destroy." The Mavericks are on a mission to reign supreme in division I and hoist the CIF banner at a basketball game this winter.

Saturday, December 12th, will mark a historical date for La Costa Canyon high school athletics. The opportunity to "win it all" has been years in the making. For the Mavericks, the gestation period is over.

Its time to leave it all on the field and capture the championship.