Whenever the San Pedro High football team scores a lot of points and gains a lot of yards on offense, it's easy to point out the play of the quarterback, the agility of the running back, and the skills of the wide receivers. 

How do they get those yards and score those touchdowns though?

The most overlooked part of any team that succeeds... the offensive line.

Over the years, the Pirates have produced a lot of great ones in Mike Walsh's 24-year tenure as coach, such as Greg Curkrov, Kevin Michaelis, Paul Aldrete, Mario Almifitano, Dominic Furio, Ralph Bracamonte, C.J. Torres, Jason Daum, Eddie Salceda, David Ruvalcaba and Pablo Reyes, just to name a few, but the offensive line of the current 2014 team can make a pretty good run for themselves.

They will also be more motivated than usual as the loss of longtime line coach Jerry Aguilar, who passed away just a week after their year-end banquet in mid-December 2013, was truly tough to beat, but the line of seniors Dominic O'Brien, Tyler Castaneda and Robert Villegas, along with juniors Juan Campuzano and Robert Quinton, and junior tight end Mike Spinosa, will do all they can to keep the legacy of 'Coach Ag' alive.

"(Coach Aguilar) was a great man who taught me a lot of things," O'Brien says. "He really made me a better player and he cared about everyone on the team."

Aguilar was a man who lived and breathed football in 40 years of coaching at Banning, Bishop Montgomery, Mary Star and Los Angeles Harbor College before he came to San Pedro High in 1995 as the junior varsity head coach. which he remained until 2003, before being added to varsity coach Mike Walsh's staff in 2004.

"Coach Ag really left a great legacy behind for everybody," Villegas says. "He had a great impact on all of us. Everyone looked up to him as a father and he always looked at us like we were his sons. All he really wanted was for us to be successful, work hard and be great men."

O'Brien and Castaneda are both returning All-Marine League standouts for the Pirates, who went 8-4 last year while placing third in the always highly competitive Marine League and reaching the CIF-Los Angeles City Section quarterfinals. Villegas, who's older brother Raymond was a member of the Pirates' last City championship team in 2008, and younger brother Richard is a starter on the junior varsity team, is another returning starter.

"I feel like we're a unit this year," Castaneda says of the deep offensive line unit which also rotates in with another junior in Issac Noriega. "We communicate very well."

The offensive line last year was a main reason why San Pedro churned out 3,146 rushing yards, and 3,938 yards of total offense as their key returning skill players includes reigning Marine League Co-Offensive MVP senior running back Chris Alvidrez, junior quarterback Jacob Miller and junior WR/DB Antonio Frazier, who last year made the Cal-Hi Sports All-State Underclass team.

It's safe to say they're a big reason why the current Pirates are 2-0 heading into this Friday's showdown at Culver City.

Spinosa, probably the most under-appreciated member of the line since he's the tight end that also does his fair share of blocking, does have a catch for 9 yards in the Pirates' 35-7 victory over Morro Bay on August 29. San Pedro has also produced some talented tight ends of the years such as Tim O'Donnell, Joey Plancich, Joey Padilla, Benny Weischedel and Keaton Accetta.

"I get to both protect in the run game and get to go out for a pass and help in the passing game too, it's a great feeling," Spinosa says.

Even though the schedule does get tougher down the road for San Pedro, the offensive line will be ready and able to keep the defenders away from Miller, and enjoy doing it. "It's a good feeling for us to know we did our job in protecting the quarterback and the running back," Campuzano says.

Somewhere up there, Coach Ag is smiling.