By Craig Juer -- Daily Staff Writer

QUICKSBURG — A strange thing happened in Quicksburg on Aug. 30.

Running back Colton Koontz scored on a running play from 29 yards out to tie Central, 6-6, in the first quarter. That wasn't the strange part.

But rather than leave the offense out to try for the two-point conversion, Stonewall Jackson coach Dick Krol signaled the kicking team onto the field.

Stonewall Jackson has a kicking team?

"Change is a big word," said Stonewall wide receiver Phillip Hovatter. "It's a big word when we've always been our style. Slowly we're developing and changing."

Hovatter should know. After toiling for two years as a lonely wide receiver — throwing blocks and running decoy routes — Hovatter has caught three passes for 51 yards in just three games so far.

But the presence of 14-year-old Juan Luna Guerrero — or "Johnny Moon," to his teammates — is a starker departure from the Stonewall of old than the few passing calls afforded Hovatter and fellow wideout Derrik Turner.

"When he comes out here with no competition and he can put it through the uprights every time, down the middle of the uprights," Krol said of Guerrero, "plus when you watch him kick and he's kicking 30, 40 yards, 50 yards when he kicks off, you get the feeling that the kid can kick."

Guerrero may have, in fact, been born to kick. His father, also named Juan, was a professional soccer player for the club Pumas in Mexico, where Guerrero was raised to the age of 7.

"He told me when I was little, when I was born I just grabbed the ball and started playing with my feet," Guerrero said.

The family moved from Moroleón, a town northwest of Mexico City, to Virginia in 2001. But Guerrero didn't develop a taste for football until last year, when a couple of friends bestowed on him an affinity for the Philadelphia Eagles, and encouraged him to go out for the JV football team.

Krol kept tabs on Guerrero all of last season.

"I don't think he missed [an extra point] with the JV's," he said. "So obviously the pressure didn't bother him."

Guerrero worked out at kicker during two-a-days this summer, and occasionally stayed after with his dad to practice kicking for an extra 30 minutes or so. He says he even booted a 50-yarder one such afternoon. Still, he was surprised when he claimed a locker next to one of his JV buddies, and Krol stopped him. He told the startled freshman to move his equipment to the varsity locker room.

"I guess it's pretty cool to be a freshman on varsity," Guerrero said. "Because there's only three of us — me, Lucas [Ryan] and John-Michael [Pirtle]."

Despite Guerrero's youth, junior Colton Koontz knows him from playing on the same travel soccer team, in which Guerrero plays above his age group. Koontz knows all too well the power of the kick concealed by Guerrero's slight frame.

"He broke my nose one time when I was playing travel league with him," he said. "I went right in front of him, he shot, and it hit me right in the face."

Guerrero nailed the extra point following Koontz' touchdown run against Central, and the two others he attempted that game. But when the Generals scored in overtime on a Jordan Laughlin run, Krol kept the offense out on the field for two.

"I mean, we may have a kicker, but let's not get too carried away," Krol said after the game. "Dick Krol is Dick Krol — we're not going to change but so much."

It isn't that Krol has never had a kicker. There have been players he's trusted enough to kick extra points, but they are few and far between. Jason Lutz, an all-around star on the football field who graduated in 1998, was the last truly consistent kicker the Generals had, once converting a stretch of 19-straight points after.

Guerrero, who said he'd like to also play wide receiver some day, has only gotten one shot at an actual field goal, and it came against Central. The Falcons overloaded one side of the protection with four players and blocked it. He did, however, hit a 35-yard extra point that was pushed back to the 18-yard line by penalties, and has converted all seven point-after tries this year.

"I've seen Juan kick them in from 45," Koontz said. "I think if we get about the 20-yard line and we're down a point or two, just because they got a two-point conversion, I think he'll definitely kick it [in a game]."

But for now, Guerrero's short-distance kicking is just good enough — perfect — to make Krol re-evaluate what he's always done after touchdowns.

"If we can get two points 50 percent of the time, we're even." he said. "If [Guerrero] misses a kick, we're behind the eight ball. But as long as he can kick consistently, we'll give him the opportunity."

*Contact Craig Juer at cjuer@nvdaily.com