Defense, Timely Offense Leads Heritage Past Yucaipa

Aleva Hifo eludes a diving defender to pick up yardage for Heritage High in Friday night's victory. Photos courtesy of kristijophotography.com

Story updated with photos by Kristi Jo Aguirre and the fact that Heritage plays at Cajon next Friday.

By Daniel Millhouse

In the midst of an undefeated football season, the Heritage High School football players found they still had some kinks to work out Friday night -- and they took care of business. Despite being held to their lowest score this season and penalized 12 times for 125 yards, the Patriots still won the game, 31-10, against the Thunderbirds of Yucaipa High School.

In the second round of the CIF Southern Section playoffs in the Inland Division, the Patriots (12-0) had to dig deep in the second half to overcome being stopped by the Yucaipa defense five times in a row.

"This is quarterfinal football, so every team you go up against is a really good football team," said Heritage coach Kraig Broach after the game. "They (Yucaipa) made things difficult. We gutted out a way to play another week."

The Thunderbirds (8-4) of the Citrus Belt League forced the Patriots to cough the ball up three times on fumbles, but the Patriots were able to reciprocate by intercepting junior quarterback Nathan Martinez three times.

The game started off positively for Heritage when senior Robert Solis recovered a fumble by Joshua Torrance on the opening kickoff of the game, giving the Patriots possession on Yucaipa’s 29-yard line. In just over three plays, the Patriots were able to capitalize on the turnover when senior Aleva Hifo scored on an 18-yard touchdown run to put his team up, 7-0.

After getting the ball back after their defense held the Thunderbirds to a three and out, the Patriots struck again halfway through the first quarter when senior quarterback Brett Virgil scored an 18-yard touchdown of his own on a quarterback keeper, doubling his team’s lead, 14-0.

That’s when things began to get a little crazy.

The Patriots defense stepped up again, stopping Yucaipa on a second three and out in a row, led by a stop behind the line of scrimmage by senior defensive lineman Quentin Asberry. They were able to get the ball back after Yucaipa's Joshua Torrance punted a ball that was accompanied by some friendly bounces for a total of 67 yards, putting the Patriots on their own 7-yard line.

On their first play of the drive, Heritage senior Jalen Glover took the handoff, but lost it on the 11-yard line. Senior linebacker Matt Lee of Yucaipa fell on it, giving Yucaipa great field position.

Even with the great field position, Yucaipa couldn’t take advantage of the stop by their defense. Quarterback Nathan Martinez threw an errant pass that Heritage sophomore defensive back Sherod White picked off at the 1-yard line. He returned the ball 4 yards, giving his team possession on their own 5-yard line.

Heritage marched the ball down all the way to the Yucaipa 18-yard line on a drive that lasted almost five minutes to that point. A miscommunication between Virgil and center Joseph Valdivia led to a bad snap that left the ball on the ground for a second before players from both sides realized it was a live ball. Yucaipa sophomore linebacker Matthew Best fell on the ball, giving his team possession with 11:33 left in the second quarter.

Yucaipa then took the ball on a drive that lasted almost half the quarter, but were held to only a 30-yard field goal by kicker Hector Romero, leaving the score at 14-3.

This didn’t scare Heritage. On a short kick during the kickoff, sophomore James Phillips took the ball 79 yards into the end zone for a touchdown, giving his team a 21-3 lead that they took into the half.

This is when Yucaipa turned up the heat on Heritage. Already stopping the Patriots in their final two possessions of the second quarter, they held Heritage to a three and out to start the third quarter.

In less than a minute into their first drive of the second half, Martinez hit sophomore receiver Gavin Norris for a 20-yard touchdown pass that put the score at 21-10. This woke up the Yucaipa home crowd and swayed the momentum in the Thunderbirds favor.

On Heritage’s next possession, Virgil took the ball on a quarterback keeper, but fumbled it into the hands Yucaipa defensive end Cody Milner.

The Patriots held tough on defense as well, led by seniors Logan Dreese and Gilbert Hernandez who combined for a sack to stop the Yucaipa offense. It wouldn’t be until halfway through the fourth quarter before either team scored.

With 5:29 left in the game, Heritage kicker Tyler Baca hit a clutch 42-yard field to put his team up 24-10, putting the pressure on Yucaipa to at least score two touchdowns to tie.

Nearly abandoning the running game, Yucaipa turned to Martinez to try to bring them back. With the ball on the Yucaipa 35-yard line to start their drive, Martinez was sacked by senior linebacker Anthony Adcock to deflate the Yucaipa offense. Feeling the extra pressure put on him by the defensive line, Martinez tried to force the ball to one of his receivers, but defensive back Jayden Dawson stepped up and snagged the pass for an interception with 4:44 left in the game.

Running the clock down to 1:17, Yucaipa’s defense stopped the Patriots on the 22-yard line, forcing Broach to make a tough decision with fourth and nine to go. Well within Baca’s range, The Patriots decided to go for it instead.

Digging out a trick play out of their playbook, they ran a double reverse that put the ball in Hifo’s hands, ending up in a 22-yard touchdown by the all-purpose back and killing off any hope Yucaipa had of making a comeback. With the score at 31-10, the Patriots sealed their victory.

"At the end of the game, we needed to put it away and we found a way to do so," Broach said after the game. "Ultimately if you win by one point, you’re moving on and you’re practicing on Thanksgiving. It’s a pretty cool deal."

The Patriots were led by a strong running game that rushed for a total of 388 yards, including three players who rushed for over 100 yards. Glover (right) ran the ball 20 times for 125 yards, Hifo ran the ball 12 times for 107 yards including 2 touchdowns, and Virgil ran 12 times, gaining 128 yards, 83 of which came in the second half, scoring 1 touchdown himself.

"We just kept playing hard the whole game," Dreese said about his team’s ability to stay tough throughout the whole game. "The offense did the same and they pulled it out in the end."

The defense was just as responsible for the victory as the offense was. Yucaipa’s Martinez was picked off 3 times, once each by Dawson, White, and senior linebacker Carlos Vargas. Lineman Asberry had 2 tackles for losses, while fellow lineman who recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff, also had a tackle for a loss.

The Patriots will have a tough matchup again on Nov. 27 when they play the Cowboys of Cajon High School (11-1), also of the Citrus Belt League. The Patriots lost a coin flip for home field advantage and must play the game at Cajon.

"We have to focus on ball security," Adcock said after the game when asked about moving on to the next round of the playoffs. "If not, we’re going to have a lot of turnovers and that’s not what we need against Cajon."

Heritage quarterback Brett Virgil found some running room against the Yucaipa defense.