'Inconsistent' play costs Paloma Valley in loss to Temescal

Javon Major races downfield for a big gain for Paloma Valley Friday night. (Staff photo)

 
By Doug Spoon, Editor

Call it a work in progress. There were both flashes of excitement and moments of frustration Friday night, and in the end the Paloma Valley High School football team lost its season opener at Temescal Canyon, 28-14.

Things started on a high note for the Wildcats when they pulled off a trick pass play to Arthur Clemons for a 43-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage. But the next play resulted in a loss of nine yards on a fumble, the drive stalled, and a 34-yard field goal attempt was wide right.

That’s pretty much the way the first half went, with Paloma Valley making good plays to get into the red zone, only to come up empty. The Wildcats’ next drive advanced the ball to the Temescal Canyon 6-yard line, but two Wildcat penalties pushed the ball back to the 16, and another field goal attempt failed.

Meanwhile, Temescal Canyon drove 80 yards on its first possession, capped by a 48-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Thomas Hibinski to Jordan Guerrero. The PAT made it 7-0.

For most of the remainder of the first half, the Wildcats were unable to string together enough successful plays to score. On their third possession, a lost fumble on the Temescal 5-yard line foiled another attempt to score. Their next drive ended at the Temescal 26-yard line when a 5-yard pass on fourth down left the Wildcats inches short of a first down.

“Offensively, we were inconsistent,” said Wildcats coach Juan Merida. “We were in the red zone four times and came away with zero points, missed a couple easy field goals ... we just have to come back to practice, work hard and clean up some of those details.”

Finally, on their final possession of the first half, the Wildcats tied the score at 7-7 when senior Javon Major caught a 31-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Orlando Gonzalez. Major rushed for 112 yards in the game and caught two touchdown passes.

“I’m glad we have him out there,” Merida said about Major. “He didn’t play last year. He’s a high level wrestler and he decided to play his senior year for us, and we’re glad to have him.”

One of Paloma Valley’s most successful drives came after a bad punt by Temescal Canyon opening the third quarter. Starting at their own 34-yard line, the Wildcats took just five plays to score on a 5-yard pass from Gonzalez to Major. The drive started with runs of 16 and 13 yards by Major. At that point, Paloma led 14-7.

The lead didn’t last long. On the Titans’ first play of their next possession, Guerrero raced 64 yards for a touchdown, breaking a couple of tackles at midfield on his way to the end zone. Things got worse for Paloma when Temescal Canyon scored again moments later when Guerrero got behind the Wildcats secondary and caught a 69-yard touchdown pass for a 21-14 lead.

It appeared Paloma had tied the score with a 10-yard touchdown run by Daniel Sanchez opening the fourth quarter, but the referees ruled his knee had touched the ground in the middle of the fourth-down play.

With the Wildcats scrambling to tie the score in the final two minutes, quarterback Isaac Navarro threw an interception that was returned 40 yards by Louis Alvis for a TD.

Gonzalez and Navarro split playing time pretty much equally at quarterback, as coaches try to decide who the starter should be. Sanchez, a third option at quarterback, appeared there only briefly in the game.

“Neither one has really separated themselves,” Merida said about Gonzalez and Navarro. “I have three juniors at quarterback. The top two have kind of separated themselves, but they’ve been pretty even from week to week through practices and scrimmages. We wanted to come out here and get some live game film of both and evaluate them.”

In the end, the coach had to praise Temescal Canyon for its performance in the opener.

“Hats off to them. They did a great job,” he said.

Quarterback Orlando Gonzalez looks for an open receiver. (Staff photo)

 Elijah Smith can't hold onto a pass into the end zone Friday night. (Staff photo)

 Head coach Juan Merida watches the action from the sidelines in the second half. (Staff photo)