Page 28 - Mid Valley Times 11-21-19 E-edition

Thursday, November 21, 2019 | B12 | Mid Valley TiMes Reedley College
Tigers get rematch against Owls in championship game
Rick Curiel / Mid Valley Times
Dinuba quarterback Josh Magaña had a tough time in the pocket against the Mustangs' stifling defense.
By Will Goldbeck
Special to the Times
For the second straight year, Reedley College will host the Foot- hill College Owls in the Northern California American Division cham- pionship football game.
The contest is set for 1 p.m. at Reedley High School’s Sal Gonzalez Field. Reedley brings a 9-1 record in- to the game while Foothill completed its first ever perfect-season last Sat- urday afternoon with a 34-3 victory over Los Medanos College.
The two-time American Golden Coast Conference champion Reed- ley Tigers finished with a perfect 6-0 conference record after a 52-34 victory over Hartnell College on Saturday afternoon at Reedley High School’s Sal Gonzales Field.
Last year, Reedley came into the bowl game undefeated but lost the division championship game to the Owls 42-41 in Reedley. The two teams met on Sept. 28 with Foothill recording a 32-20 victory. The Ti- gers were without star running back Jamon Chambers in that game due to injury. Without Chambers in the lineup, the Tigers finished with a net of minus 18 yards rushing in the loss.
“It’s hard,” said Tiger head coach Eric Marty after the win over Hart- nell. “It was a little bit of a trap game, obviously. You have the huge emotional high. You go on the road the week before and beat an unde- feated team in Monterey. We knew Hartnell was a good team but we felt confident, getting them at home. We probably didn’t come with the same energy and enthusiasm that we’ve come all year in the first half but the guys did a good job refocusing in the second half, finishing the game.
“We’ve built this thing right,” added the coach. “We’ve got a deep talented roster and in four quarters, we are going to wear people down.”
Marty added that it was great to see Chambers reach the 1,000 yard rushing mark. “It’s an individual ac- colade but also a team accolade. We are good offensively, we are good up front. Our defense gets us the ball back. It’s exciting that within the framework of your team, guys start doing special things. Jay Vance is go- ing to be near the top of the state in sacks. All those things are just really, really exciting for the program, for the fans and those individuals.”
Last Saturday in Reedley, the Ti- gers scored 24 unanswered points af-
ter the Panthers had pulled to within 14-13 early in the second quarter.
Depth may have made a differ- ence as the Tigers honored 25 sopho- mores before the contest while Hart- nell had only 30 players in uniform.
Jamon Chambers scored three touchdowns for the Tigers, giving the sophomore from Tacoma, WA 19 scores on the season. He also leads the state in points scored. Chambers ran 22 times for 140 yards, increas- ing is his season total to 1,005 yards. Charles Peoples, a sophomore from Atlanta GA, intercepted two passes for the Tigers. He returned one to the Hartnell 2, from where quarter- back Bubba Hixson (Suwanee, GA) scored three plays later. Peoples had a touchdown called back at the one after a celebration penalty.
The Tiger defense scored Reed- ley’s final touchdown of the contest as freshman Aarin Gladden (Los Angeles) scooped up a fumble and scored from nine yards out for Reedley’s 65th touchdown of the season.
Reedley finished the regular sea- son third in the state in scoring with 480 points. The Tigers were first in Northern California by a wide mar- gin.
EMPERORS
Continued from B1
roster.
Though not as packed
with Division I talent, the Tribe went 8-3 this season and 4-1 in league. Their only league loss this sea- son was to Tulare West- ern, 24-14.
So Dinuba knew what they were walking into. And they saw just how good the Mustangs were on Nov. 15 as Tulare West- ern dominated all sides of the ball, scoring the first 20 points of the game be- fore the Emperors were able to get on the board.
Dinuba scored their first points late in the first half when kicker Cesar Lopez kicked a 35-yard field goal after the Em- perors were stopped on third-and-goal.
The Emperors’ only touchdown came in the third quarter when senior quarterback Josh Magaña hit wide receiver Brian Ruiz on a slant. Ruiz found open space in the Mus- tangs’ secondary and took it 70 yards for the score.
Though the touchdown
would bring the Emperors to within two scores, at 27- 10, Tulare Western con- tinued to will their way through Dinuba’s defense with their run game. As a team, the Mustangs ran for 491 total yards, with three players running for over 100 yards, including quarterback Mikey Fich- er, who ran for 134.
Ficher and running back Tairyn Johnson each scored a pair of touch- downs for the Mustangs.
Tulare Western’s only pass of the game came in response to the Em- perors' only score. In the Mustangs’ ensuing posses- sion, on a fourth-and-short at Dinuba’s 8-yard-line, Ficher turned a heavy- run formation into a jump pass to teammate Mario Gonzalez, who is listed on Tulare Western’s roster as a nose guard.
Tulare Western will face No. 1 Hanford to- morrow night in the semi- finals. The winner of that game will take on the win- ner between No. 6 St. Jo- seph (who beat Redwood on Nov. 15) and No. 2 San Joaquin Memorial for the Division II championship.
Lady Tigers finish second in state golf championship
MVT Staff Report
The Northern California champion Reedley College women’s golf team has finished in second place at the 2019 California Community College Athletic Association women’s golf champion- ships at Morro Bay.
It is the best state finish in school history.
Head Coach Scott Stark’s Lady Tigers finished with a team score of 648, 39 strokes behind four-
time champion College of the Can- yons. Modesto finished third at 657. Freshman Monica Yu (San Diego) led Reedley by finishing in a tie for sixth place after recording a 74-77–151. “Monica lost in a card off for all-state honors,” said Coach Stark.
Sophomore Serena DiMauro (Cen- tral, Fresno) tied for the sixth best round on Monday with a 75 to fin- ish with a 160. Freshman Mya Chao (Golden West, Visalia) was next with a 77-86–163 while freshman Alyssa Ben-
dure (Clovis North) shot an 84-90–174. Freshman McKenzie Quinn (Clovis East) followed with a non-scoring 86- 91–177 while sophomore Serena Gar- cia (Dinuba) recorded a non-scoring 87-92–179.
The top five Canyons golfers are sophomores with three of the student- athletes coming from Taiwan, the Phil- ippines and Japan.
Last year, Canyons won the state title by an 18-stroke margin over Des- ert with Reedley finishing fifth.
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