INLAND FIELDHOUSE

SAN BERNARDINO – The Jurupa Hills-Cajon varsity football game on Friday, Aug. 26, 2022, could have done without the entire second half.

For Jurupa Hills, losing both starting wingback Damien Ortiz and running back Kamron Taylor on consecutive plays in the second quarter really created an unrecoverable mis-match situation. Senior Jordan Napier, already option 1A on offense, got double teamed consistently in the second half and the whole team looked a little frustrated when a tipped pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown in the third quarter. The fourth quarter was played with a running clock.

Jurupa Hills head coach Citos Marinez: “Man, what a good experience for us to play against on the top schools in the Inland Empire. We definitely felt the physicality and the speed but we’re proud of the way our guys compete and we just have to do a better job of handing in there for four quarters. This game could go two ways – it could teach us a lot about who we are and what we need to do to win a competitive Sunkist League but on the other side if we’re not strong enough then we could go the other way – but I’m confident in this team. We didn’t just schedule Cajon, we’ve got Downey and Etiwanda so those first three game we really wanted to see what we’re about. We’ve started the last few years 5-0 but against lesser programs and we pay for it in the playoffs. So it felt like we really had to give ourselves this experience early instead of late when it’s too late. The injuries (to Taylor and Ortiz) don’t seem to be as bad as we originally thought but we have to get some tests to verify, but we have to be smart and we still have two tough opponents but that was the deal with schedule those three teams. In this new format, it came as a shock to us last year in D4, and we knew we had to play these kinds of teams to be able to compete at that level. I have to do a better job (of getting Napier the ball). We knew he was going to command attention and with Kamron going down that allowed them to totally focus on Jordan, but ultimately as the playcaller I have to take that responsibility and get creative on how I get him the ball. He’s so good, he might get two scored on two touches but it all depends on how we get it to him.”

For Cajon, a size and strength advantage played out a little more slowly than the crowd would have liked but the Cowboys still got the job done despite what coach Nick Rogers called “some bad dancing” and other penalties. Bad dancer Philander Lee was a dominant force early and often, and the rest of the defense got better as the game ticked on. On offense, a QB competition has yet to be settled as both Niko Papatsos and Evan Powell played well and passed for touchdowns before incumbent starter Martinez Miles got one in the third quarter.

Cajon head coach Nick Rogers: “We didn’t have our scrimmage so I think a lot of (our mistakes) are to that, but we also have some things that are just mental mistakes, things that don’t have anything to do with the game. It’s just immaturity and that’s been a problem with this group. We knew that coming into it that we have a lack of experience and it showed. We’ve got guys (QBs) that haven’t really seperated from each other so we’re letting them battle it out and we’re hoping to figure it out and go with one. Right now, they’re battling and we’re inclined to let them battle and see what happens. (Miles) took the first set of reps this week but it’s all three of them and it’s an open competition. They know that and they’re going to compete each week. Defense was physical but we had a lot of mental mistakes, a lot of penalties on them after the play that put us in some bad situations to kick the football and that hurt us a little. First time (vs. Jurupa Hills) and they’re a good program. They’re physical up front and they gave us a lot of fits on the offensive line but our think our guys, outside on the edges, did a great job of blocking.”

Jurupa Hills – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 — 0
Cajon – 8 – 6 – 20 – 0 — 34
First quarter
C – Lee 9 run (Miles run), 9:02
Second quarter
C – Austin 15 pass from Papatsos (run failed), 0:10
Third quarter
C – Anderson 20 pass from Powell (run failed), 4:43
C – Ah.Chapman 55 int. return (Austin pass from Miles), 2:47
C – Jey.Smith 63 pass from Miles (pass failed), 0:21
Fourth quarter
No scoring
Team statistics
Total plays – Jurupa Hills 55; Cajon 52.
First downs – Jurupa Hills 7; Cajon 10.
Penalties – Jurupa Hills 8-55; Cajon 8-72.
Turnovers – Jurupa Hills 3; Cajon 0.
Individual statistics
Rushing – Jurupa Hills: Taylor 10-37, L.Williams 1-7, Ruiz 8-4, Ephraim 1-3, Napier 3-(minus-1), Brown 1-(minus-2), Ortiz 2-(minus-8), Pernillo 3-(minus-21); Cajon: Miles 4-27, Jey.Smith 2-22, Coward 3-17, Lee 1-9, Rivers 5-8, Alexander 2-8, Harris 3-2, Beauregard 1-(minus-1), Powell 2-(minus-1), Papatsos 3-(minus 8).
Passing – Jurupa Hills: Ruiz 5-15-1-66; Cajon: Miles 5-10-0-106, Powell 4-8-0-71, Papatsos 4-7-0-53.
Receiving – Jurupa Hills: Brown 1-29, Napier 2-25, Pernillo 1-12, Ephraim 1-5; Cajon: Jey.Smith 4-100, Austin 5-59, Anderson 2-40, Beauregard 1-29, Rivers 2-16.
Interceptions – Jurupa Hills: None; Cajon: Ah.Chapman 1-55.

Photo by The Press-Enterprise