Heritage falls behind early in 56-14 loss to La Quinta

Darrius Burnett beats a defender to the goal line for Heritage Friday night. (Photo by Rick Rowell)

By Paige Mendez, Correspondent

The Heritage High School football team lost 56-14 at home to La Quinta Friday night.

An early 14-0 run from La Quinta meant the Patriots had an uphill climb ahead of them before the second quarter started. But the next two Heritage possessions were done in six plays or less, before the Blackhawks ran for an 80-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 22.

Heritage’s quarterback, sophomore Elijah Sanchez, was looking to turn the next possession into a touchdown but a flag and two incomplete passes led to a fumbled snap on the punt attempt, which gave La Quinta a safety and even more cushion to their score, followed by a touchdown on the very next play in the kickoff return that put the Blackhawks up 30-0.

It was little things like the fumble that ended up making the biggest difference in the loss for the Patriots. Head coach Rich McClure said that’s due to the age of his team.

“We have a really inexperienced team here,” McClure said. “But that’s part of rebuilding a program, even if they’re making silly mistakes.”

Sanchez was able to fix a few of those mistakes on the next Patriot possession, though, which was their longest up until that point in the game. On third down and 15 from the 24-yard line, Sanchez connected with senior running back Josiah Smith, who then ran the ball into the end zone.

“I just felt on top of the world for a second there,” Smith said. “It was nice to give my team that little spark.”

La Quinta got to the end zone one more time before the end of the half, making the score 36-7 going into the locker rooms.

The Heritage defense felt the spark from Smith’s touchdown and got a quick stop, forcing a punt in just four plays on the first drive of the second half, putting the offense in position to ride that spark as well.

Smith ran the ball to the Blackhawk 49-yard line, then Sanchez found wide receiver Darrius Burnett on the following play.

“The line did a good job blocking and I just had to execute the play,” Burnett said. “I give that to my quarterback though with executing.”

The momentum brought another defensive stop resulting in a Blackhawk punt in the next four plays—their shortest possession of the night at that point.

But an interception on the second down for Heritage on the next drive seemed to put out whatever flame the spark had started.

La Quinta capitalized quickly on their next possessions, bringing their total score to 56 before the end of the third quarter, the last touchdown being a pick-six from the 33 yard-line.

The Patriots defense didn’t give up the fight and had two big forced fumbles at the end but the offense didn’t convert those stops into anything on their side of the scoreboard.

McClure said his work with this team as the head coach is something that won’t be visible through the wins and losses this year, though.

“This is part of rebuilding a program; every day is a new challenge, but we welcome that,” McClure said. “Everybody is going to judge on wins and losses in this situation, but it’s not representative of the amount of work these guys are putting in every day. They’re doing great in the weight room and staying on top of their grades.”

Burnett echoed his coach’s thoughts.

“We work hard every day and we have new coaches, so we’re building,” said Burnett. “But we’re going to have a good couple years from now on.”

The Patriots will head to Palmdale to play Knight High School next Friday at 7 p.m.

Josiah Smith finds some running room on the way to the end zone for a Heritage touchdown. (Photo by Rick Rowell)

 Quarterback Elijah Sanchez threw two touchdown passes for the Patriots. (Photo by Rick Rowell)