Prep Impressions: March 26, 2021
RIVERSIDE — The Riverside Norte Vista-Riverside Ramona Week 2-A varsity football game on Friday, March 26, 2021, was a masterclass in moving the point of attack and pushing the pile.
For Ramona, bloodied afterward, it meant its defense was going up against the biggest offensive line this side of the Big VIII and having to deal with one of the Inland area’s top running backs and rushing attacks. The Rams did what they could, which is to say they held their opponents under 500 rushing yards and were able to score a couple of late touchdowns to make the score seem a little less like the blowout. Senior QB Diego Muniz looked pretty good, all things considered.
Ramona coach Ken Mushinskie said, “We knew that it was going to be a tough game. Norte Vista, not only are they talented and very big up front (but) they’ve been doing so for years. Like, they’re offensive line is a very well-oiled machine, and you put a couple good backs behind them in Eddie (Allain) and (Jessie) Carvajal and they’re going to do damage. I was real proud of how our guys did not give. They didn’t quit and that was what we talked about at halftime. It’s ‘Hey, you got a still keep going, keep your heads know held high.’ We were able to play a lot of sophomores to get them reps and that was really good. The one thing I was most impressed with with Norte Vista is that they were disciplined. I mean, you know there ever was a little chatty on the football field but we call it on ‘2’ a lot and they never jumped. I really take my hat off from teams do that, especially teams that are that aggressive. Coach (Andy) Martinez has done a great job over there with their defense, and they were just so well disciplined. It’s nice to see out of a high school football team. It’s kind of a catch-22 right now because we definitely want to honor the seniors and get them in, and I was trying to get some guys at the end that are seniors but one the same had we do have to get the sophomore ready for next year and hopefully our seniors understand that it’s nothing against them it’s preparation for the next season coming up here in a few months. We’ve got some young guys on the offensive line and (Norte Vista) took advantage of it and put Diego (Muniz) on his back a few times (and) put him in some tough situations but I’m proud of him. He kept fighting. He kept throwing the ball and Adrian Monje had a great game. We were able to put a couple in the end zone to avoid the shutout, which is nice, but when you’re playing a team like that you have to hit on all cylinders, and it’s hard when you’re facing a really talented team like Norte Vista.”
For Norte Vista, which ran away with a 62-0 victory in Week 1, it was about getting the seniors more playing time before letting the referees run the clock. Last week, the Braves let the refs run the clock starting in the SECOND QUARTER but not this week, up only 35-0 at halftime instead of whatever ridiculous number they posted last week. Oh, and Eddie Allain has gotten faster. He could’ve had 400+ had a couple of long runs not been called back for holding calls.
Norte Vista coach Ken Batdorf said, “We made a lot of mental mistakes. We had holding penalties (and) we had procedure penalties. The offensive line did really well but our quarterback didn’t play as well as he could have and, again, the penalties on both sides of the ball – we’ve got eliminate those. I know Eddie ran really hard and, you know, that great. He had a great game but he had some great holes by the offensive line. He didn’t get many carries in the second half but the biggest thing was we did that and we did run the ball hard, so that was a good thing. There are some things that we are worried about that we need to fix. We’re big. We’re not tall (but) we’re thick. One of the things the kids did was they committed to weight room as freshman (and) so they’re almost all seniors now across the board and they’ve been lifting hard. When the COVID hit, I tip my hat to the kids because they decided to organize themselves and go to, like, two kids had their garages set up, and you can see the results. We can talk about the running backs and how great they did, and they all had big games, but it’s won with the offensive line. Hillcrest is great football team and we have to play our ‘A’ game. I don’t think we can play like we did today and beat them. They’re a really good football team so we have to play a lot more disciplined and hopefully we come out and have a great week of practice. I always tell the kids, ‘Get this much better everyday, and then at the end of the week you’re this much better, and at the end of the season we’re this much better.’ I wish we were playing Hillcrest in Week 5 but we’re playing them in Week 3 and they’ve got some amazing talent, but we’re not bad ourselves.”
BOX SCORE
Norte Vista – 14 – 21 – 7 – 7 — 49
Ramona – 0 – 0 – 6 – 6 — 12
First quarter
N – Allain 67 run (A.Rodriguez kick), 9:08
N – Carvajal 4 run (A.Rodriguez kick), 3:10
Second quarter
N – Allain 69 run (A.Rodriguez kick), 8:54
N – Gaines 26 pass from Garcia (A.Rodriguez kick), 2:56
N – Allain 43 run (A.Rodriguez kick), 1:31
Third quarter
N – Allain 40 run (A.Rodriguez run), 10:43
R – Monje 18 pass from Muniz (kick failed), 7:00
Fourth quarter
N – Rodriguez 5 run (A.Rodriguez kick), 11:45
R – Valdez 10 fumble ret. (kick failed), 5:50
Individual statistics
Rushing – Norte Vista: Allain 14-316, Chimal 3-49, J.Gonzalez 6-42, R.Rodriguez 7-39, Carvajal 3-29, Stoddard 4-14, Perez 5-7, Moctezuma 1-(minus-2); Ramona: Bruins 8-35, Romo 2-5, Monje 1-(minus-2), Muniz 7-(minus-7).
Passing – Norte Vista: Garcia 2-3-0-27; Ramona: Muniz 14-19-0-115.
Receiving – Norte Vista: Gaines 2-27; Ramona: Monje 7-71; Shinar 3-22, Bruins 2-12, Esau 2-8.
Penalties – Norte Vista: 11-105; Ramona: 3-35.
INLAND FIELDHOUSE 