Macias, Hill lead Heritage to 56-14 victory over Lakeside

Senior running back Armando Macias Jr. finds some running room. (Photo by Action Captures Media Group)

By Paige Mendez, Correspondent

The Heritage High School football team led from start to finish Friday night in a 56-14 home victory over Lakeside.

The Patriots got on the board within the first few minutes of the game, scoring a touchdown on their first offensive play. Senior running back Armando Macias Jr. carried the ball 40 yards into the end zone.

Heritage’s defense then forced a punt on the next Lakeside drive and gave the offense a chance to score one more touchdown before the end of the first quarter. The Patriots did that with the help of Macias and his carrying skills, making up half of the total yards gained on that drive.

From that point on, it was mostly a lather, rinse and repeat game for Heritage.

The defense forced turnovers and punts, thanks to Charles Smith and Dane Ortiz putting up eight sacks on the night. Meanwhile, the offense kept scoring on the running game of Macias and sophomore Hayden Hill.

It wasn’t until the last minute of the third quarter that Lakeside had any score of its own, and when they did, the Lancers topped it with a lateral-pitch-throw to the end zone conversion. That gave them their first eight points, when the Patriots already had 49 on the board.

Just four plays later, Heritage had answered and totaled 56 on the board during the running clock of the fourth quarter. Then Lakeside had one more score in two long plays that put them at 14.

At that point, coaches had put in sophomore quarterback Elijah Sanchez, who threw a 22-yard touchdown pass of his own, but it was taken back due to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, leaving the final score at 56-14.

Of the touchdowns that were counted, Hill contributed four, while Macias had three. Quarterback Achilles Reveles had one that he snuck up the middle right before the end of the first half.

Hill and Macias combined for over 400 yards of Patriot offense on the night. Roughly 300 of those yards came from Macias alone, who, as a senior in the football program, said he is happy to see his hard work paying off in this game.

“We work so hard on this all the time,” he said. “All I can say is to trust the process. That’s what we did and now we’ve done what people thought we couldn’t do.”

That process is one that head coach Rich McClure has all but begged his team to buy into over his past two years with the program.

“I really do believe that we have been doing these kinds of things already, but the kids believing in themselves and doing the little things right in a game like this … their confidence in the system grows,” McClure said. “For the last three weeks we’ve had so much pressure, so tonight we could relax and get in the flow of the game and good things happened.”

This win makes the Patriots’ overall record 3-5 on the season, 1-2 in league. After a winless season last year, McClure is taking this win (and the two earlier in the season) as evidence that his strategy is beginning to work.

Hill, who as a sophomore has only played under McClure, said that the coaches and captains have made a difference in the overall attitude of the team, just since last year.

“When you have a group of guys that work together and have fun together, it’s just so much better,” Hill said.

“We put in so much work into this program in the last nine months,” Macias said, agreeing with Hill’s sentiment. “We have had a lot of people join our program after our bye week and that’s so cool. Being positive with your team makes its way around to build everyone up and I try to do my best at that with my team.”

McClure said that energy translates into confidence, which, eventually turns into wins.

“Before, we were doing a lot of this that we did tonight, even moving the ball and getting a bunch of yardage, but we didn’t have the confidence to finish it,” he said. “It is 100 percent so big as a coach to see it happen tonight.”

The Patriots have two games left on their schedule this season, the next being a road match-up at Citrus Hill (0-2 in league) on Friday at 7 p.m.

Heritage's Hayden Hill celebrates one of our four touchdowns Friday. (Photo by Action Captures Media Group)

Linebacker Matt Mason intercepts a Lakeside pass at the goal line. (Photo by Action Captures Media Group)

 

Linebacker Julian Pulido puts pressure on the Lakeside quarterback. (Photo by Action Captures Media Group)

Wide receiver Nofotau Sili gains yardage after the catch on Friday. (Photo by Action Captures Media Group)