Recap
Rancho Cucamonga, CA — RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> When you run a hurry-up offense, it can be difficult to slow down. For Etiwanda on Friday night, it nearly cost them dearly.
That hurry-up mode helped the Eagles go 70 yards in 1 minute, 41 seconds, setting up a game-winning, 27-yard field goal by Jerome Wilson with 4.9 seconds remaining to beat host Los Osos 24-21 in the Baseline League opener for both teams.
The Eagles were leading 14-13 with 5:40 remaining and drove quickly to extend their lead to eight points when Evan Gutierrez ran a direct snap and scored from 5 yards with 2:29 remaining.
But that was more than enough time for the Grizzlies. Los Osos took three plays to get into the end zone to tie the game at 21.
Starting at its own 27, quarterback Donovan Smith hooked up with Eliaz Alegre for a 21-yard gain that was extended another 15 yards thanks to a roughing the passer call.
Smith then found Noah Sparks for a 14-yard gain to the Eagles’ 23. He followed that up with another strike to Alegre for the touchdown. Smith then found Destin Harrison in the back of the end zone for the two-point conversion to tie the game.
“We’re so used to going fast, that you want to find a happy medium,” Etiwanda coach Kevin Davis said about the earlier scoring drive. “We did slow down for us a little bit, but I felt good about it. We put together a good drive and we got things clicking.”
The frantic finish followed a sluggish first half for both teams. Both teams moved the ball, but went backward due to penalties and defensive stops.
The Grizzlies finally broke through late in the second half. They went 80 yards in the final 2:08, turning to a bit of trickery to score. Smith handed the ball off to Alegre, who flipped it back to Donta Stanton Jr. on a reverse. Stanton then passed to Smith in the end zone for the score and a 6-0 halftime lead.
Etiwanda took the lead on its first drive of the second half, as quarterback Shane Murphy hit Nate Neal for a 23-yard touchdown pass on a fourth-and-9 play.
Los Osos followed with a scoring drive of its own, going 64 yards in 12 plays, capped with a 3-yard run from Keyshon Clark. But Etiwanda countered quickly. Gutierrez returned the ensuing kickoff 77 yards to the Los Osos’ 12. Two plays later, Kasmir Dima was in the end zone from 10 yards out.
Davis knows that his team still will have to improve going forward in a Baseline League that is going to be full of challenges. Especially after they committed 13 penalties for 95 yards.
“We obviously didn’t make it easy on ourselves with a lot of mistakes,” Davis said. “We’re just trying to get 11 guys on the same page. Defense is playing well, but a lot of penalties on offense. But hats off to those guys, they had a great fight all the way through.”