Paloma Valley defense steps up in victory over King

Paloma Valley defensive backs Phillip Mills (11) and Andre Kirkpatrick take down a King receiver Friday night. Photo by Kristi Jo Aguirre.

By Daniel Millhouse

The Paloma Valley High School defense stepped up and won a game of flag football against King High of Riverside Friday night, 27-13.

No, they didn’t play the non-contact version of the sport. There were 26 total penalties between the two teams.

Despite being penalized 15 times for 137 yards, the Wildcats of Paloma Valley stepped up in the second half to shut out the Wolves. What made this feat even more impressive was the fact that they lost three defensive starters to injury in the first half:; Steven Bradshaw, Phil Mills, and Lanell Harrell.

"When Steve, Phil, and Lanell went down, I just had to pick the team back up," said Paloma Valley linebacker Dylan Rodriguez. "I know everyone’s heads went down when they went out, but we had to keep it going. We had to play for them."

King’s defense didn’t let up, either. Feeding off the energy of their home crowd, the Wolves held the Wildcats scoreless for their first two possessions.

The Wolves then put up the first points of the game when quarterback Maximillian Ochoa hit receiver Jaylen Moore for a 9-yard touchdown pass with 4:24 left in the first quarter. The score remained 6-0 after kicker Nathan Kolonics missed the point-after attempt.

Paloma Valley was caught off guard when King kicked on onside kick and recovered the ball on its own 48-yard line. Even with the good field position, the Wildcats clamped down on the Wolves.

Neither team would score until there was 7:24 left in the second quarter. Chance Nolan hit Seth Carvalho for a short pass. Carvalho then broke free from would-be tacklers, scoring a 46-yard touchdown to give his team a 7-6 lead.

Blake Moore works his way through a crowd to gain yardage Friday night. Photo by Kristi Jo Aguirre

On the following kickoff, King’s Ryan Munoz returned the ball to the Wolves’ own 40-yard line before he was stripped of the ball. Junior Amir Hasin smothered the ball, giving the Wildcats possession.

Clearly motivated by the play of the special teams, the offense scored within a minute when Nolan hit Blake Moore for an 8-yard touchdown pass, giving the Wildcats a 14-6 lead.

It didn’t take long for the Wildcats (3-0) to find themselves with the ball again after their defense once again stopped the Wolves' running game.

Paloma Valley’s offense struck again quickly, taking only a little over two minutes to push the ball downfield before Nolan found a wide-open Jayden Lundy in the end zone for a 31-yard touchdown pass. After a missed point-after attempt by Rafa Mendez ricocheted off the right upright, the Wildcats found themselves up, 20-6.

Undeterred with only 2:49 left in the half, the Wolves gradually chipped away at the Wildcats’ defense. As the clock read 0:00, Ochoa found an open Pablo Gomez in the end zone. This kept King High within one score going into halftime, 20-13.

Little did anyone in attendance know that this would be the last time King would score.

The defense of Paloma Valley would take no prisoners in the second half. Led by Rodriguez and the secondary play of Andre Kirkpatrick and Nick Naranjo, the Wildcats overcame their team’s 11 second-half penalties to silence the Wolves' home crowd.

The Wildcats quickly stopped the Wolves on their first possession of the half.

The offense didn’t waste time putting points on the board. After Nolan hit Lundy for a 45-yard pass that took Paloma Valley to King’s 22-yard line, Corey Maddox evaded King’s defense and ran the ball into the end zone on the very next play. This gave Paloma Valley a 27-13 lead with 9 minutes left in the third quarter.

King entered desperation mode, forgoing the concept of punting in favor of going for it on fourth down. On fourth down and 22 on Paloma Valley’s 32-yard line, King rolled the dice, but came up empty when the pocket collapsed around the quarterback and Damian Torres and Maleek Baranauskas slammed into him the sack.

Andre Kirkpatrick moves ahead with the ball for Paloma Valley during Friday's win. Photo by Kristi Jo Aguirre

Before Paloma Valley could enjoy the moment, the referees tossed their flags onto the field, giving King a little hope. The Wolves would retain possession and would go for it again with the ball now on the 24-yard line, but still fourth down with 14 yards to go.

Ochoa then tried to hit one of his receivers in the end zone, but Kirkpatrick knocked it down, giving the ball back to Paloma Valley.

"The coach was always telling us in these weeks that defense needs to step up because there is going to be one day when there’s going to be a team that will shut down our offense like they did tonight," Kirkpatrick said after the game. "He told us to get ready because the defense needs to step up. We took that to heart."

Still only up by two touchdowns, the Wildcats’ defense had to step when King’s defensive back, Joshua Fisher, intercepted Nolan twice during Paloma Valley’s next two possessions.

King found themselves again in another fourth-down dilemma, but with only 7 minutes left in the game on Paloma Valley’s 31-yard line and 3 yards to go for the first down, they decided to go for it. Their running game was once again stopped by Torres, who met King’s running back at the line of scrimmage.

On King’s next possession, this time with only 1:25 left in the game, King was forced to go for it again on fourth down. With the ball on their own 42-yard line and 4 yards to go for the first down, Ochoa overthrew a covered Chris Venable, putting the nail in the Wolves’ coffin.

Hasin led Paloma Valley with 7 tackles, followed by the 6 tackles each made by Torres and Rodriguez. As a whole, the defense only allowed the Wolves to rush for 51 yards on 32 rushing attempts.

"We had some injuries," Paloma Valley head coach Bert Esposito said. "Three or four of our starters came out, other guys stepped in. Our D-line played really well and held them. They couldn’t rush the ball."

On the offensive side of the ball, Maddox ran for 86 yards on 16 attempts and a touchdown while also catching 3 passes for 56 yards. Lundy had 92 yards receiving on 5 receptions, including 1 touchdown. Nolan completed 21 passes out of 34 attempts for 313 yards and 3 touchdown passes.

"Our offense struggled tonight. Just too many penalties and mistakes. Stuff that we never do," Esposito said, summing up how his team played. "We didn’t practice really well this week. It was a direct reflection of how we played tonight, but we’re happy with the win, no doubt."

Next week, Paloma Valley will be on the road again to face the Panthers of Corona High School (2-1).

Wildcats quarterback Chance Nolan tries to avoid a group of King defenders. Photo by Kristi Jo Aguirre