INLAND FIELDHOUSE

RIVERSIDE – The Montclair-Arlington varsity football game on Friday, Nov. 26, 2021, was one more surprise in a season full of them.

For Montclair, the No. 2 seed in the CIF-Southern Section Division 13, to be shut out in the championship game has to sting A LOT. The Cavaliers came in scoring four touchdowns a game in the playoffs, yet were stumped by an underrated defense. It should have been a crowning moment for head coach Martin Bacon, but it was so bad that when the Cavs offense got the ball back with 8 seconds to play, QB Erick Harrison just took a knee to end the game.

Montclair head coach Martin Bacon said, “Credit to (Arlington). That’s a well-coached football team. We struggled when we had the chance to take control of this game and it cost us.”

For Arlington, an early defensive stand on a 4th-and-goal at the 1-yard line set the tone or the rest of the game, and senior RB Ray Warhop scratched and clawed his way to another 200-yard, two-TD performance as the Lions did the improbable – rebounding from an 0-and-7 start to the season to battle to four consecutive playoff victories en route to the CIF-Southern Section Division 13 championship, the program’s first since section title winning the Division IV title in 1990.

Arlington head coach Kevin Argumosa: “What we’ve accomplished now is just amazing, and we’re just going to soak this in right now and go from there and see what happens.”

Montclair – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 — 0
Arlington – 0 – 10 – 7 – 6 — 23
First quarter
No scoring
Second quarter
A – Warhop 8 run (Mendoza kick), 9:14
A – Mendoza 27 FG, 5:47
Third quarter
A – Warhop 10 run (Mendoza kick), 5:17
Fourth quarter
A – Bozeman 9 run (run failed), 4:20
Team statistics
Total plays – Montclair 56; Arlington 60.
First downs – Montclair 11; Arlington 13.
Penalties – Montclair 9-54; Arlington 5-50.
Turnovers – Montclair 4; Arlington 1.
Individual statistics
Rushing – Montclair: Tinajero 15-61, Marcial 3-19, Castro 2-4, Suarez 1-4, Harrison 5-3, Ortiz 1-2, Bogarin 2-0, Tehe 1-(minus-2); Arlington: Warhop 36-224, Turner 5-26, Bozeman 5-14, Johnson 6-7, Barnett 1-4.
Passing – Montclair: Harrison 12-21-2-182; Arlington: Johnson 0-2-0-0.
Receiving – Montclair: Cheung 4-103, Tehe 4-58, Tinajero 2-17, Ortiz 1-3, Catson 1-1; Arlington: None.
Interceptions – Montclair: None; Arlington: Clark 2-55.

Photo by Milka Soko for SCNG