INLAND FIELDHOUSE

RIVERSIDE — The Perris Citrus Hill-Riverside Poly Week 5 varsity football game on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, was more lopsided than expected, therefore rendering the meaning from all post-game conclusions.

For Citrus Hill, it must be nice to be able to spread the ball around to eight ball carriers and another half-dozen capable receivers, and have the weapons ready and waiting. Senior QB Markus Bell has been put in a position to succeed, and now the pressure mounts for him to make the most of it. Junior RB/LB A.J. Porter is big and physical and a special player on both sides of the ball, and junior WR/DB Armani Orange is as special as advertised, just a next-level player with another full year still ahead of him.

Citrus Hill head coach Jason McMains, “It’s always great to get out to a good start, and basically a turnover right in the beginning, ball on the 2-yard line or whatever. You couldn’t ask for a better start, and get the energy going and stuff. Excited for the boys. The boys put as close to four full quarters together as we can. The start of the third quarter didn’t as we wanted it to but they bounced back, and I think overall we played a good game. That’s kind of what we need before we get into league. I don’t think we’re ahead of schedule. In my mind we’re still a little behind where we should be. We’ve had a lot of inconsistencies in the preseason that I think in the last two weeks we’re kind of starting to find a rhythm. We’re also not clicking a times the way we want to so we just have to go back to practice and know that, ‘Hey, these next five weeks are super important and out focus need to be greater, and our attention to detail has to be there.’ But I think the kids are finding that rhythm so we can get there come playoffs. It’s a blessing to have so many options on offense. I’ll take that any day. It is tough because there’s only one ball out there, and trying to get everybody involved, but as an offensive coach you love that anybody at any time can make a big play, and it’s comforting as a coach to know that. I’ll take that any day as opposed to not having any weapons.”

For Riverside Poly, this game nor its result will live long in memory. It can’t. The second half of the season is still yet to be played and if the Bears stand any chance of qualifying for the playoffs it cannot spend another second thinking about what happened here. In truth, they’ve played better games, and won’t be facing a team of Citrus Hill’s caliber again this season. It’s good experience against a superior opponent but little more. One positive should be senior QB Budd Bernie’s improvement this season as a decision maker. Hopefully this game against can help him slow the game down.

Riverside Poly head coach John Rice said, “Athletically, it wasn’t going to matter. We played hard and one turnover was not going to be the difference in this game between a win and a loss. We’re proud of our team. We’re ready to get in to league. Athleticism. They have a lot more than we do, and our kids played hard and we’re ready to go to league. We do the same things we’ve been doing. We practice hard. We do the right things. We get better every week. We identify mistake and we correct them.”

BOX SCORE
Citrus Hill – 14 – 14 – 7 – 7 — 42
Riverside Poly – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 — 0
First quarter
C – Porter 3 run (Armenta kick), 11:51
C – Orange 21 pass from Bell (Armenta kick), 6:39
Second quarter
C – Jackson 12 run (Armenta kick), 11:18
C – Orange 74 run (Armenta kick), 9:04
Third quarter
C – Jackson 26 pass from Bell (Armenta kick), 1:52
Fourth quarter
C – Jackson 58 punt return (Armenta kick), 5:58
Individual statistics
Rushing – Citrus Hill: Orange 5-113, Porter 3-48, Badillo 5-24, Jackson 3-16, Brown 3-14, Brooks 1-10, Bell 6-12; Riverside Poly: Harrel 9-25, Cerda 3-4, Sanchez 4-3, Lamontagne 3-(minus-1), Bernie 11-(minus-3).
Passing – Citrus Hill: Bell 4-6-0-68, Orange 1-1-0-27; Riverside Poly: Bernie .. .
Receiving – Citrus Hill: Brooks 1-27, Jackson 1-26, Orange 1-21, Adams 1-14, Craver 1-7; Riverside Poly: Lamontagne 4-71, Ma 1-18, Harrel 1-10.
Penalties – Citrus Hill: 4-30; Riverside Poly: 2-20.