Photos and story by Krissy Hetherington
On September 5th, 2018, Redwood football was able to take their 2nd league win against the reigning D-IV Central Valley Champions, Golden West. Despite multiple mistakes in the first half, the Rangers were able to come back on top winning 27-14 against the Trailblazers’ traditional “wing-T” offense.
Redwood (3-4) (2-0) got off to a rough start this season but have already shown great improvement heading into their last few games of the regular season. How were they able to pull off this win? Big plays by La Dre Aguilar, QB Julian Sanchez, and Gabe Vasquez. Under head coach, Shaun Ball, the team always competes with the cross town school which usually makes for a pretty great game. Friday night’s game did not disappoint. Friday night was also Golden West’s Senior Night and Pink Out game.
After winning the coin toss, Golden West received the kickoff from Hunter Bryan and started on the 29. Christian Ortiz’ job for the night was to run the ball and he fulfilled his duty from the beginning by gaining multiple yards for the Blazers within just a few plays. With 8:29 left of the first quarter, Ortiz goes on a 9 yard run to score the first touchdown of the game and the extra point is confirmed by Alberto Nunez.
Redwood answered this with a rocky but effective drive. Aguilar drops the ball after receiving the kick but the ball is quickly recovered by Kaleb Wright to remain in Ranger possession. James Richardson achieves a first down after a few runs then Sanchez makes a QB sneak to get another first down. From there, Sanchez throws the ball deep to Aguilar for a 38 yard touchdown with 4:30 left of the quarter but the kick was no good. No more action occurs ending the quarter 7-6 with Golden West in the lead. And no action in the 2nd quarter result in a scoreless quarter making it 7-6 Golden West up to go into halftime.
The boys in blue were a little down on themselves at this time because they knew they weren’t fulfilling their potential to that point. Sanchez described the feeling that inspired their comeback “…we made so many mistakes and the score was barely 7-6 so that really says something about how the game should’ve been if we had done our part [in the first half].” After halftime though, the boys came out with a newfound momentum and readiness to play and show everyone what they are truly capable of. They definitely lived up to this.
Redwood starts the 3rd with the ball on the 37 which is returned by Sam Olson. The drive ends in a 3 and out and Bryan kicks it off but Redwood defense keeps them contained and scoreless. After regaining the ball, Gabe Vasquez throws a wide open throw 44 yard throw to Aguilar for another Ranger touchdown!
Aguilar celebrated this moment with his team as the turning point in the game and said on behalf of the play “It felt great, I was kind of scared that he wasn’t going to get it there but when I saw the ball in the air, I knew we were gonna score.” With 8:17 left, the field goal is good putting Redwood up 13-7. No further action occurs.
4th quarter starts off with Sanchez throwing a pass and running for a 12 yard gain. After a Golden West player goes down in the play to follow, Sanchez keeps the ball for a touchdown but the two point conversion pass is no good. With 11:35 left of the quarter, the score stands as 19-7. He describes this moment: “It felt great…my team believed in me as much as I believed in them and knowing I kept it that way and didn’t let them down is something that means a lot to me…I was confident we would push the ball in and we did.”
On the very next play after the kick return, Golden West’s Tyson Sandri throws an interception caught by Aguilar who runs in for his third touchdown of the game. The two point conversion is good as Sanchez runs it in on a keeper making the score 27-7 with 10:37 left to go.
Golden West answers this by turning the ball over on downs then Redwood goes three and out then back to GW who turn the ball over again. After a Ranger fumble, the Blazers recover then Ortiz runs it in for his second and the last touchdown of the game. The extra point is good and with 1:16 left of the game, the final score ends 27-14.
After the game, Coach Ball said, “[they] played disciplined and as a team…they believed in what we were all playing for and also believed in each other. We just need to continue to improve each and everyday and it will show on Friday nights.” With their next game against Hanford High School on October 12, 2018 in the Mineral King Bowl, the boys are hoping to keep this energy and momentum up. Sanchez said they plan on doing this by “continuing to dig deep and find it within ourselves…Coach Ball always asks us before games, ‘what do you want out of this and what do you want to be remembered for’ and this is something I always try to think about…we want to keep this streak going and claim the WYL title.”
Tags: Central Section, central valley, football games, race to win league, Redwood, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood rangers, team, WYL