Norte Vista wears down Paloma Valley in opener, 28-14

Paloma Valley quarterback Blake Hauser gets outside, looking for yardage Thursday night. The Wildcats lost, 28-14. Menifee 24/7 photos by Doug Spoon

By Doug Spoon, Editor

Tom Tello's theory is that a young, inexperienced team gets better by being challenged, and right from the start. So even though the Paloma Valley High School football team lost a 28-14 decision at Norte Vista High in Riverside to open the season Thursday night, he believes some important progress was made.

"They’re a quality team," Paloma Valley's head coach said after the Wildcats were dominated by the Braves, who return a veteran team from last year's 9-3 squad and are ranked No 5 in CIF Division 10.

"They’re good at what they do -- and that’s why we scheduled them. We’ve got to be better than this, learn from our mistakes and be better next time."

Next time means next Friday and a home opener against another tough opponent -- Murrieta Valley. But at least the Wildcats will go into that game knowing what it takes to hang in there when the hard hits keep coming.

Paloma Valley had the ball for only four plays in the first quarter. But although the Norte Vista offense was grinding out yardage behind sophomore running back Eddie Allain, the Paloma defense kept the Braves off the scoreboard until the opening minutes of the second quarter. That's when Allain scampered six yards for a touchdown on a night when he ran for 247 yards and 2 scores.

In addition to being pushed around on the line while on defense, the Wildcats had trouble moving the ball on offense. But after struggling to move the ball on the ground, they did show some life in a 92-yard touchdown drive led by junior quarterback Blake Hauser's pass completions.

Starting his first varsity game, Hauser connected with Jared Garcia on a 45-yard pass down the left sideline, hit Garcia on a 25-yard pass moments later and came back with a 17-yard touchdown pass to Garcia to tie the game at 7-7. It stayed that way at halftime, and Paloma got the ball to start the second half.

"They were loading the box," Tello said about the tough Norte Vista defense against the Paloma running game. "We had to take advantage of some other stuff and we were able to do that, so that’s a positive sign. We have to fix the running game and get better."

Hauser led Paloma Valley from its own 19-yard line to the Norte Vista 27 before turning the ball over on downs to open the third quarter. The Wildcats got the ball back three plays later when Bradley Edwards recovered a fumble, but Notre Vista's more experienced line put up a brick wall to get the ball back seven plays later, The Braves then moved 77 yards in 10 plays -- all runs -- capped by Allain's 2-yard touchdown run and a 14-7 lead. Notre Vista never gave up the lead after that.

After Notre Vista's Emmanuel Rubio recovered a Hauser fumble for a long return, it took the Braves only five plays to score on a 1-yard run by Gilbert Garcia for a 21-7 lead.

Paloma Valley's final scoring drive covered 70 yards, primarily on the passing of Hauser, although the touchdown came on a 20-yard run by Elijah Orellana. Hauser finished with 214 yards passing.

Norte Vista put the game away with 6:24 left on a 44-yard touchdown run by Jesus Gonzalez, who finished with 180 yards rushing.

"The defense was on the field a lot and they never quit," Tello said. "They played hard from the first quarter to the last, and that’s all you can ask.

"We have a bunch of new starters. That’s no excuse, but I think they return eight on both sides of the ball and they played like it, and we return one. So yeah, it was our first game and we kind of played like it, but the guys showed their heart and they will learn from this."

Jared Garcia hauls in a touchdown pass in front of a Norte Vista defender for Paloma Valley's first score.

Norte Vista running back Eddie Allain finished the game with 247 yards and 2 touchdowns rushing.

Elijah Orellana is all alone in the end zone after scoring Paloma Valley's second touchdown.