9-28-18 Sec 3 pg 12-16_Edition 9/26/18 3:23 PM Page 13

highlandnews.net n Highland Community News SPORTS Friday, Sept. 28, 2018 13

JUCO football: It’s either End zone notes

the hammer or the nail League play set to begin:
It was a nice step for San
Bernardino Valley to take on View
Riverside City College in a Sept.
15 non-conference football
showdown on the Wolverines’
from
above
Who’s ready to play?
home field. By OBREY BROWN
Riverside, under longtime
Obrey S PORTS E DITOR
Brown H IGHLAND C OMMUNITY N EWS
coach Tom Craft, has been vir-
tually unbeatable by statewide Ambassador League has a
JUCO teams not named Fullerton or Mt. San Antonio-Walnut or combined mark of 24-5-1 … San
Long Beach or Saddleback-Mission Viejo. The Tigers have beaten G hasn’t lost since 2012 … Cit-
virtually everyone else since he’s arrived in 2009. rus Valley gets Redlands at
home … SBVC Wolverines have
San Bernardino Valley, though, haven’t been all that relevant
since the days when Ron Smedley (still not in California JUCO turned into a dangerous threat.
This season’s Citrus Belt
Hall of Fame, but probably should be) — assisted by Carl Beach —
had the team in the 1990s. League schedule is set to start.
Call it the Hammer and the Nail Syndrome in California junior Throw in the San Andreas
college football. League, plus the Ambassador
League. Each league has vari-
A few years back, JUCO leadership guided its football-playing
ous amounts of drama attached
teams into a pair of conferences, National and American.
to this year’s outcomes.
National Conference teams were reserved for the powerhouse
teams. Call them the Hammers. Citrus Belt: Citrus Valley’s
American Conference teams were the lesser-strong squads, will- off to a 4-1 start, but Redlands
ing but not really capable. They’re the ones getting hammered on, High is just the opposite at 1-4.
the Nails. Yucaipa won a shootout, 35-
31, against Victorville Silvera-
It’s a phrase coined by an area JUCO athletic director (his team
do.
were Nails).
Coaching’s a factor, but it largely depends on where the campus Cajon lost a shootout, 41-36,
sits. to Menifee Heritage.
College of the Desert, for instance, is out in Palm Desert. Its Redlands East Valley, which
feeder schools comprise mainly of Palm Desert, La Quinta, Twen- beat Ontario Colony last week-
end, has played the likes of
tynine Palms, schools from Thermal, Palm Springs, Indio —
powerhouses Norco and Up-
Coachella Valley-based campuses.
I know I’ll get in trouble for this, but those are the Nail schools. land.
Get hammered on. It’s the very essence of American Conference While Cajon and Citrus Val-
teams. Good, not great. Weaker. Not as powerful. Wish it were dif- ley, both 4-1, stood out with the
ferent. best records throughout the
pre-season, REV (3-2) has
By contrast, Riverside sits in prime pouncing position for play-
played well under a new coach.
ers — Corona and Norco, all those schools along Interstate 15, plus
Redlands and Rialto Carter,
Eastvale and Moreno Valley. Riverside Unified has aptly con-
tributed to the Tigers’ roster. both 1-4, haven’t looked all that
San Bernardino Valley should be a “Hammer.” Look at the clien- strong.
tele: Fontana Kaiser and Redlands East Valley, Yucaipa and Cajon, Now that Rialto Eisenhower
Rialto-based schools, plus Colton, Bloomington and Grand Terrace and Fontana A.B. Miller, cup-
cakes on Citrus Belt League
and those five Fontana campuses. Let’s not forget Citrus Valley,
Redlands and a handful of San Bernardino city schools. schedules in recent years, have
left for the San Andreas
Wolverines’ coaches have tried valiantly to pluck the best play-
ers for their own district. It must’ve seemed hard to keep a League, there will be fewer
Fontana Summit kid from showing up at either Chaffey or River- “gimme” games in 2018.
side City College. There are new coaches at
REV (Rich Lunsford replacing
Over at Riverside, meanwhile, Craft lined ’em up. Tryouts. Eval-
Kurt Bruich), Citrus Valley
uations. A little out-of-state recruiting (Beach’s big value to Smed-
(Bruich replacing Pete Smolin)
ley at SBVC, incidentally), plus a lifetime of hard-hitting and suc-
cessful coaching triumphs made the Tigers a powerhouse. and Redlands (Mike McFarland
After those player evaluations, Craft kept the best, cut the rest, replacing interim coach Der-
players scrambling to other schools. That’s the way to becoming a rick Dial).
Hammer. San Andreas: Consider that
Rim of the World hasn’t lost a
Such behavior needed to be stopped.
game in 2018 while defending
Second-year SBVC coach Daniel Algattas, I think, sees a vision
of what the Wolverines can pull off. He’s an offensive guru, pass- champion San Gorgonio has
ing game whiz and brilliant play-caller. Throw in an attacking de- won three out of five against a
fense, some solid kicking teams, and he’s in the process of lifting fairly grueling schedule.
SBVC from “wannabe” Hammer status into the higher-tiered Na- The Spartans seem comfort-
able in their San Andreas
tional Conference.
League surroundings. Five of
Valley lost to Riverside City College, 77-35, but hardly looked
like the “Nail.” last season’s six wins came in
Sad fact is that some JUCOs won’t ever escape from getting San Andreas play. Rialto came
hammered. closest to knocking off San G,
SBVC has a real shot at becoming a “Hammer.” losing 34-27 in overtime.
San G has won 27 straight
league games dating back to a
2012 loss against league cham-
pion Rialto Carter. The Spar-
tans have won five straight San
Andreas championships with 5-
0 records.
Ambassador: Arrowhead
Christian Academy carried a 4-
0 record (one win by forfeit)
into last week’s game against
another unbeaten squad, Lake
Arrowhead Rim of the World.
Despite a 28-0 loss, the Eagles
held their own against Rim’s
vaunted ground attack, surren-
dering less than 200 total yards.
The league is stacked, consid-
ering Temecula Linfield (5-0),
Ontario Western Christian (4-0-
1) and a trio of 4-1 teams that
includes Aquinas, Arrowhead
Christian Academy, Bermuda
Dunes Desert Christian and a 3-
2 Ontario Christian has con-
structed a combined 24-5-1
mark entering league play.
Aquinas, meanwhile, is de-
fending Southern Section Divi-
sion 9 champion.
LAST WEEK’S GAMES
Prep results
Citrus Valley 27, Grand Ter-
race 21 — The Blackhawks
were spotted a 28-0 lead before
the Titans scored late in the
third quarter to mount a come-
back. Citrus Valley QB
Jonathan Calderon added three
more TD passes — 45 yards to
both Jesus Guzman and Colby
Graves, plus another 20-yarder
to Guzman. Safety Jordan Scott
came up with a first half inter-
ception, negating a possible
Grand Terrace scoring drive.
Jake Acuna’s pick set up a
Blackhawk TD.
San Gorgonio, bye.
Aquinas, bye.
College results
San Bernardino Valley 72,
L.A. Southwest 0 — One week
after surrendering 77 points to
state power Riverside, the
Wolverines got a school-record
seven TD passes from QB Ar-
mando Herrera (415 yards)
while Valley’s defense held the
Cougars to 216 total yards, in-
cluding just 16 on the ground.
The game’s lone interception,
SBVC’s Wesley Smith, was re-
turned 38 yards for a TD.
University of Redlands, bye.
THIS WEEK
Friday’s prep games
Aquinas (4-1) at Ontario Christian
(3-2), 7 p.m. — The Knights are a run-
oriented team.
The Falcons
are a run-stop-
ping team. The
results will be
apparent
somewhere
between 9 and
9:30 p.m. on Friday night. RB Ethan
Venerable (569 yards, 10 TD) and QB
Daniel Serna (417 yards, three TDs)
are Orange County’s top weapons.
Now that the CIF-enforced Sit Out
Period is completed, it might be inter-
esting to see if Aquinas has any
weapons ready to deploy as Ambas-
sador League play opens.
So far, RB Andrew Kellstrom (720
yards), along with Juan Ortega and
Isaac Handy, plus a voracious de-
fense remain Falcons’ top producers.
Redlands (1-4) at Citrus Valley (4-
1), 7 p.m. – While dropping four
games, the Terriers have played San
Gorgonio,
Temecula
Chaparral and
Murrieta Mesa
to fairly close
outcomes,
beating Palm
Springs in
overtime for their lone victory.
The Blackhawks, under Bruich,
are establishing an aerial attack with
Calderon (eight TD passes). Lots of
Citrus Valley players are getting
touches, including Scott, Guzman,
Grames, RB Adonis Melton and Jor-
dan Garcia-Frye.
Arroyo Valley (3-2) at San Gorgonio
(3-2) (record), 7 p.m. – Hawks’ sec-
ond-year
coach Jake
Knesel has
taken his team
from 0-10 last
season to a 3-
2 start in
2018. QB
Spencer Barbo
(585 yards, eight TDs) and RB De-
lano Green (382 yards, five TDs) can
pile up yardage, but the Spartans
have an eye on Barbo’s eight inter-
ceptions this season.
Former Citrus Valley QB Jordan Pa-
chot (1,256 yards, 14 TDs) has four
top targets — David Whaley (399
yards, six TDs) Elijah Hall (308, 3),
Jaylen Mathews (294, 3) and Dema-
jea Mitchell (222, 2) with Hall’s rush-
ing numbers at 146 yards a game,
six yards a carry (six TDs).
Saturday’s college games
San Bernardino Valley (3-1) at
Pasadena (2-2), 6 p.m. — After back-
to-back wins over College of the
Desert and Glendale, the Lancers
have fallen in back-to-back games

Coyotes
Continued from page 12
court. We knew that it was going to be a
great game from the start, playing San
Marcos.
“We just had to focus on our side.”
Toward the end of the fourth set, both
sides volleyed the ball with spectacular
hits, much to the delight of spectators.
“It’s always exhausting but you want to
come out on top,” said Cardoza. “We came
back with a vengeance,” regarding the
long-playing battle near the end of the
game.
Cheers rang out, as the ball was launched
repeatedly over the net several times.
After losing the second set, Cardoza said,
“It was a disappointing set. We had to come
together as a team and refocus our mindset
and go back in and battle it out.”
“We knew that San Marcos was going to
be a tough match-up,” said Coyote setter
Jayann DeHoog. “We had to focus on us,
play our game and run our offense. We did
a very good job and fired on all cylinders.”
“San Marcos is a tough competitor,” said
DeHoog. “We were expecting a battle.
However, we knew that we were going to
come out on top, and we did.”
Regarding the team’s overall play, De-
Hoog said, “I think we settled down and
started running our offense a little more
like we wanted to. That was important.”
against Saddleback-Mission Viejo
and last week’s 36-7 loss to Chaffey-
Rancho Cucamonga. Pasadena City
College will be taking on a red-hot of-
fensive force in the Wolverines.
University of Redlands (2-1) at
Pomona-Pitzer (2-1), 7 p.m. — The
Bulldogs’ 20-12 win over George Fox
University and the Sagehens’ 40-6
loss to the same school should crack
any debates over the outcome of this
game.