INLAND FIELDHOUSE

MORENO VALLEY – What impressed me most about the Elsinore-Moreno Valley Vista del Lago varsity football game on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023, was the Ravens’ resiliency.

Vista del Lago lost arguably its best player – Keith Woods – to a leg injury in the first quarter and the team didn’t shrink under the pain. Instead, the Ravens put on one of the guts-iest performances we’ve seen in quite some time as senior QB Larry Joyce completed nine consecutive passes in the second half to lead VdL (3-0 overall) on a game-winning drive.

Randy Kirshman: “We just critical mistakes and that was a good, hard-fought defensive game. We came up a little bit short on some of the plays we had opportunities on. It was a stagnant for a while – and these are two good, defensive football teams – but I think both teams found some stuff and made some adjustments. They made more plays than us and that was the difference. You look back and you see a bunch of different things, but the kids played hard. I take my hat off to them. The defense is playing at such a high level. Really, if you look at our last few weeks, they’ve kept us in games. Being honest, we get blown out of the water without them, and when you’re playing good defense and special teams then you have the chance to beat anyone. My hat is off to my defensive coordinator Jeff Hodges. All those kids are playing their tails off.”

Michael Touhy: “We started messing up on defense and they broke a long one when we didn’t adjust to their motion, so they caught us there. (Joyce) played his ass off. We lost our best receiver, a kid who is the heart and soul of this team, and I’m so gutted for him but I’m proud of the guys fighting for him and finding a way to win. We’re going to fight for him. WE battled for him tonight and found a way to win so I’m just proud. They guys understand that it’s the next many up. We’re going to fight for him the rest of this year to make sure we end it right and do right by him. Normally, we get to 2-and-0 and we stumble. We play one of these tough teams and we trip up a little bit, but the boys showed up and we fought tonight. Respect to Elsinore. They’re a hell of a team and very well coached.”

Elsinore – 0 – 10 – 0 – 7 — 17
Vista del Lago – 6 – 0 – 0 – 13 — 19
First quarter
V – Concepcion 1 run (kick blocked), 5:06
Second quarter
E – Maxfield 85 fumble return (Costa kick), 1:50
E – Costa 36 FG, 0:35
Third quarter
No scoring
Fourth quarter
V – Bolanos 5 pass from Joyce (80 kick), 6:33
E – Maxfield 67 run (Costa kick), 6:10
V – Joyce 4 run (PAT blocked), 2:24
Team statistics
Total plays – Elsinore 60; Vista del Lago 64.
First downs – Elsinore 10; Vista del Lago 19.
Penalties – Elsinore 3-25; Vista del Lago 7-50.
Turnovers – Elsinore 2; Vista del Lago 2.
Individual statistics
Rushing – Elsinore: Maxfield 12-127, Santoyo 8-73, Flores 7-25, Whitlock 2-(minus-20); Vista del Lago: Joyce 10-42, Concepcion 16-27, Brown 1-0, Bolanos 1-(minus-2).
Passing – Elsinore: Whitlock 5-8-0-35, Stankus 1-5-1-5; Vista del Lago: Joyce 22-32-0-229, Fuller 0-1-0-0.
Receiving – Elsinore: Irvin 3-14, Maxfield 1-12, Olmos 1-8, Sepulveda 1-5; Vista del Lago: Bolanos 14-133, Concepcion 1-29, Fuller 1-25, Carter 3-23, Brown 2-20, Hicks 2-15.
Interceptions – Elsinore: None; Vista del Lago: Bolanos 1-0.