Prep Impressions: Oct. 22, 2021
CORONA – The Eastvale Roosevelt-Corona Centennial varsity football game on Friday, Oct. 22, 2021, was another example of why change is desperately needed for the Big VIII League..
For Eastvale Roosevelt, three-and-outs were the norm on a night with only four first downs and negative yards in the running game. The Mustangs’ ran the ball 17 times for 14 yard sin the first half, but by the end of the game had managed minus-3 yards on 25 carries. Senior RB Jacquez Neal could not get past Centennial’s front four, and QB Julian Viramontes was unable to settle in against continuous pressure and changing coverage patterns.
Eastvale Roosevelt head coach Tommy Leach: “I’ve had the best coaching experience of my life on this field, and the worst, and I’m going to tell you that the difference, I think, honestly, but (Centennial) holds. And they’ll keep holding and the refs never call it, and it’s disgusting. If my Chaparral teams that beat them in years past played them now we wouldn’t beat them because we can’t just sit in the shade and get off the ball because we’re going to get hog-tied and thrown down to the ground. And people will say I’m whining, but it’s true. There’s no technique in blocking anymore. It’s disgusting, and I think we need to start teaching that technique on our side because it is bad. It’s not going to get easier, not when that happens. Not at all. It’s a frickin’ travesty. It’s not even football anymore. It’s wrestling. Watch the film. People call that technique. No, and it’s not going to get any easier if that crap keeps up. It won’t. Our kids go over there (to Centennial). A lot of Eastvale kids go over there, and they get a lot of the best of the best around, and I just love and appreciate that kids that want to be here and want to be on Roosevelt and play hard and understand that when we play Centennial it’s going to be an uphill battle. When I took this job I knew it was going to be that way (and) because their roots are so deep I thought it would take about 6 years. This is my sixth year and look at the score. It’s pretty sad. I really thought it would take about six years to kind of compete and this my sixth, so I don’t know. We just don’t have the depth It’s a battle of attrition. We’ve already made the playoffs, thank goodness, so now we’re thinking, ‘What’s the lesser of two evils?’ Some of our guys we had to rest, and some guys we had to pull out early. But they’re a badass team. Really, if you think about it only five teams, maybe four teams in the nation would beat them. And it’s funny. too, that after all this time after they beat us our roots are still pretty superficial (and) it’s like the world is going to end, we’re a crappy program, we’re this, we’re that, but only five other teams might beat this team. Let’s get real. So we have to think about it differently because we are a good team. We are a good program and we have dudes. We have a lot of good players. It just gets harder. We’re going to have to work hard in the offseason. We’re going to be losing a lot great seniors. I think this is our year. I do. We’re not going to be in Centennial’s division and we’re going to have an opportunity to do great things, a real good opportunity. We are a really good team, and really good teams get smacked by them. Am I sick of it? Yeah. But I came here for a reason, and obviously right now I’m not getting it done. Their defense is so good because of what they’ve got on offense. They can take chances (and) they can do things because they know the offense has their back. That’s really comfortable. I’m not saying ‘They’re not good,’ because they do have a lot of talent, but when you have a really good offense it helps. It really does.”
For Corona Centennial, it was another exercise in execution and precision as the Huskies dominated in all three phases. The running game is clicking with any one of three players able to take hold of a game while Izzy Carter and Carson Conklin continue to alternate possessions at the QB spot. Defensively, a ball-hawking secondary backed up an aggressive pass rush with a couple of interceptions and a shutout.
Corona Centennial head coach Matt Logan: “I think they understand where we’re headed and what we have to do, and they came out and played really well. They shutout by the defense was awesome, and the offense scored on nearly every possession so that was good. The defense has been unbelievable. I think we have negative rushing yards total, on the season, that we’ve given up. It’s amazing. They play so hard and physical and it’s great. We talk about wherever we land in the playoffs it’s going to be a really good team out of the gate, so we just have to prepare for that. We understand that playing against each other in practice has got to be good practice because then we’re playing against one of the best defenses in the state every day, and we’re playing against one of the best offenses in the state every day, so we just have to get great work against each other. We threw the ball well, ran the ball well, everything was good. (Jayson Cortes) is such a workhorse. He’s so tough and he works his tail off. Any success he has is great and the offensive line did a good job for him.”
Roosevelt – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 — 0
Centennial – 23 – 28 – 7 – 6 — 64
First quarter
C – Cortes 1 run (Angeles kick), 8:14
C – Cortes 12 run (Angeles kick), 4:10
C – Safety, 3:12
C – Hatcher 2 run, 0:37
Second quarter
C – Cortes 14 run, 8:52
C – Jimenez 10 pass from Carter (Angeles kick), 2:03
C – Plewe 38 int. return (Angeles kick), 1:43
C – Kennybrew 22 pass from Conklin, 0:28
Third quarter
C – Jones 1 run (Angeles kick), 5:02
Fourth quarter
C – Angeles 32 FG, 7:00
R – Angeles 37 FG, 0:00
Team statistics
Total plays – Roosevelt 42; Centennial 47.
First downs – Roosevelt 4; Centennial 15.
Penalties – Roosevelt 3-34; Centennial 6-50.
Turnovers – Roosevelt 2; Centennial 1.
Individual statistics
Rushing – Roosevelt: Neal 10-16, Gooden 3-15, Warren 4-11, Martin 1-(minus-1), Salas 1-(minus-2), Montoya 1-(minus-9), Viramontes 3-(minus-15), Razo 1-(minus-18); Centennial: Cortes 9-62, Hatcher 3-54, Jones 7-48, Schumacher 1-10, Carter 3-9, Conklin 1-5, Woodson 1-1, Villareal 1-(minus-6).
Passing – Roosevelt: Viramontes 4-13-2-46, Montoya 0-1-0-0; Centennial: Conklin 6-8-0-108, Carter 6-7-058, Barela 1-1-0-12, Hutchins 0-1-1-0.
Receiving – Roosevelt: Enriquez 3-38, Neal 1-8; Centennial: Kennybrew 3-67, Riley 2-31, Jimenez 3-25, Young 2-19, Mickey 1-17, Lauderdale 1-12, Faupel 1-7.
Interceptions – Roosevelt: Warren 1-0; Centennial: Plewe 1-38, Mickey 1-24.
INLAND FIELDHOUSE 