Page 26 - Mid Valley Times 10-17-19 E-edition

Thursday, October 17, 2019 | B12 | Mid Valley TiMes
Eagles avenge last season's loss with win over Hawks
Immanuel will host final regular season home game tomorrow night
MVT Staff Report
For the second time this season, the Imman- uel High football team avenged a loss from 2018.
The Eagles (5-2) com- bined a methodical ball control offense with a big play defense to down the Liberty High Hawks, 27- 12 , on Oct. 11 in Madera Ranchos. That turned the tables from last sea- son, when Liberty came to Reedley and posted a convincing 49-19 victory.
This time around, Im- manuel took the lead in the first quarter and nev- er relinquished it. Junior Winston Williams had a rushing and receiving touchdown and linebacker Michael Kawagoe turned in a big defensive game with 17 tackles including a 55-yard interception re- turn for a touchdown to make the score 27-0 early in the fourth quarter.
A Trace Pires inter- ception thwarted Liber- ty’s opening drive, but the Eagles’ first possession ended in a missed field goal attempt. Immanuel’s defense forced another punt, setting the stage for a 65-yard drive to the first points of the night.
Williams capped the possession off by finding the end zone on a 14-yard run, and a missed ex- tra point left the score at 6-0. After a Liberty
punt pinned the Eagles on their own 1-yard-line, they drove the length of the field to build the lead to two touchdowns. Matt Tiger broke free on a long run into Hawks territory, and sophomore quar- terback Hector Davila scored on a 22-yard run. Matthew Azua’s extra point kick made it 13-0, which was how the first half ended.
The offensive con- sistency resumed in the third quarter. The Ea- gles took the kickoff and marched 68 yards, with the final 18 coming on a scoring pass from Da- vila to Williams. Liberty then drove from deep in its own territory to near midfield, but Kawagoe delivered the knockout blow with his pick-six just one minute into the final quarter.
It their credit, the Hawks did rally with a 9-yard touchdown run and 42-yard scoring pass play. But Immanuel showed one final piece of offen- sive dominance, taking the kickoff after the sec- ond TD and burning the final six minutes off the clock with a prolonged drive.
Davila completed 8 of 12 passes for 89 yards while adding 55 yards rushing on 11 carries. Se- nior running back Tiger accounted for 178 of the
Kirk Kawagoe / Photo Contributed
Immanuel High’s Winston Williams (24) sprinted past Liberty-Madera Rancho defender Rylan Howe (34) during a first-quarter touchdown run.
Reedley downs McLane with big second half performance
Eagles’ 254 rushing yards on 22 carries, and also added one catch for eight yards. Williams had five receptions for 65 yards.
Immanuel High has its final home game of the regular season on Friday, Oct. 18, against Sierra High from Tollhouse. It’s also the Eagles’ home- coming contest, and activ- ities are scheduled before the game and at halftime.
Immanuel close out the regular season with road games at Millenni- um Charter (Friday, Oct. 25) in Southern California and at McFarland (Friday, Nov. 1). The Central Sec- tion playoffs begin the fol- lowing Friday, Nov. 8.
Kirk Kawagoe / Photo Contributed
Immanuel High’s Trace Pires (2) hauled in a first-quarter interception as teammate Amren Pure- wal(13)lookedonduring theEagles’27-12victoryatLiberty-MaderaRanchosonOct.11.
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MVT Staff Report
The Reedley High Pirates have their first football winning streak of the sea- son — both on the road — and took anoth- er major step toward a possible winning season and postseason playoff berth.
The Pirates (4-3, 2-0 North Yosem- ite League) went ahead to stay just be- fore halftime, then dominated the final 24 minutes in a 45-15 throttling of the McLane Highlanders in Fresno on Oct. 11.That followed a 25-20 road win against Roosevelt and leaves Reedley tied for first in the NYL with Sunnyside, a 51-7 winner over Fresno on Oct. 10.
“I never felt that we were in trou- ble, but we had two costly fumbles and [McLane] scored on both of them,” coach Tony Gates said, “One of the things I was proud of is that I told [the team] that learning to win this time of year is overcoming adversity. And they did just that.”
Trailing 15-13 late in the first half, the Pirates successfully ran a two-min- ute drill capped by a 30-yard touchdown pass from Gannon Gabaldon to Joey Ra- mos for a 20-15 lead at the break. Reed- ley then scored on the first play of the second half when Gabaldon and Devin Decker hooked up on an 80-yard scoring play.
Senior Gabaldon had a big day, com- pleting 7 for 10 passes for 167 yards and also rushing for 86 yards on 12 carries with three touchdowns. Decker had more than 100 yards receiving while running back Danny Cortez rushed for 100 yards and a touchdown on just nine attempts.
Gates praised Gabaldon’s perfor- mance running the team’s read offense. “The coaches working with him have
done a good job, and he’s starting to get the feel for what he needs to read,” he said. “We give him a picture as best as
we can during the week, and then on Friday he’s getting really good on see- ing what [defenses] give him and what he can take. He’s like a fullback, he’s a tough kid who likes to deliver hits.”
Gates praised the defensive play of the team’’s linebacking unit, which was bolstered by the return of middle line- backer Kyle Doi from a bout with pneu- monia. The Pirates held McLane score- less in the second half to allow the of- fense to pull away from the Highlanders (205, 0-2).
Reedley has the opportunity to secure its postseason spot in Division 5 with NYL home games the next two weeks, starting with a game against winless Fresno High on Friday, Oct. 18 at Sal Gonzalez Field. The Pirates then host Hoover on Friday, Oct. 25, before clos- ing the regular season with a Halloween night showdown in Fresno against cur- rent league co-leader Sunnyside High.
“Now it’s a matter of we’re winning, so now we have to teach them not how to win, but how to handle it,” Gates said. “How to prepare, and how to not rest on your laurels. Continue to be hungry.”
Despite Fresno High’s struggles, Gates said the Pirates are not in a posi- tion to take anybody for granted.
“I don’t think we’ve learned how to handle the winning quite yet. So, we may be as hard on them this week as we have been all year,” he said. “Every Friday is another piece of the puzzle, and we lit- erally are just trying to teach them to focus on the opponent and make the ad- justments in games. We have yet to have a complete game.”
But Gates added that it’s been re- warding to see the players, their fami- lies, and alumni have success.
“The families are excited, the kids are excited. We tell them the games to remember are played in November,” he said.
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