INLAND FIELDHOUSE

SAN BERNARDINO – What impressed me most about the Citrus Valley-Cajon varsity football game on Friday, Oct. 13, 2023, was how seamlessly Dawson Martinez has fit into the Blackhawks plans on offense.

Martinez offers Citrus Valley a dimension they didn’t have before – a runner out of a quarterback – and it’s given the Blackhawks an element of unpredictability that is catching teams off guard through his first three games.

Kurt Bruich: “If you when the turnover battle – it’s cliche’ – but you have a chance. His ability to score with his legs is huge because a lot of people don’t account for the quarterback. And Cajon’s defense is really good and the flow hard, so (Martinez)’s ability in misdirection with what we were doing made a huge difference. And then Kade (Finazzo) comes in for one play and throws a huge bomb for a touchdown, for the game-sealing touchdown, basically. We did some dumb things like there at the end but so what. It’s football. It was good for us to be in a battle game because we’re going to need those in the playoffs. Us and Cajon has become the rivalry. For this group of seniors, it’s satisfaction. To do it last year may have been a fluke to come back and do it again, against the best team in our league, shows that these kids have put in the work to make that happen. I wouldn’t say, ‘Driver’s seat’. Any CBL team can beat anybody, but we feel pretty good about where we’re at.”

Nick Rogers: “More of it for me was the procedural penalties. They did a lot of line movements, and whether or not it spooked us I don’t know. We practiced for it but that put us behind the sticks. Obviously, you don’t want to turn the ball over but those things happen. We haven’t had these issues but we haven’t faced a defense line that was stemming quite like Citrus Valley, and maybe we were wound a little tight because it is a rivalry game for us. Hats off to Citrus Valley. They came out and played well and got the victory. The biggest thing for us is the kids didn’t give up. They kept fighting and clawed our way back into it. The job that Evan Powell and Jared Rennick did in the second half, and Brandon Rivers made some key plays for us, too. Just proud of them and they way they hung, defensively. We only gave up 10 points in the second half. The defense played well but we put ourselves in a hole and just couldn’t quite dig ourselves out of it. It doesn’t get any easier. We go with Yucaipa and Beaumont, and we’ve got to win one to get into the playoffs. We have Yucaipa first. Hopefully, we can go out there and beat them and that’ll get us into the playoffs, and we can kind of role with that. But sometimes losing is a good thing. Seems strange to say that but it’s just the way it is.”

Citrus Valley – 0 – 21 – 3 – 7 — 31
Cajon – 0 – 0 – 8 – 18 — 26
First quarter
No scoring
Second quarter
CV – Martinez 21 run (Bline kick), 11:15
CV – Lucas 5 run (Bline kick), 7:58
CV – Douglas 19 pass from Martinez (Bline kick), 3:02
Third quarter
Ca – Sly 1 run (E.Powell run), 6:39
CV – Bline 28 FG, 1:16
Fourth quarter
Ca – Rennick 14 pass from E.Powell (run failed), 10:53
CV – Wiseman 45 pass from Finazzo (Bline kick), 5:36
Ca – Birmingham 11 pass from E.Powell (pass failed), 3:53
Ca – Chapman 7 pass from E.Powell (pass failed), 3:26
Team statistics
Total plays – Citrus Valley 72; Cajon 67.
First downs – Citrus Valley 12; Cajon 11.
Penalties – Citrus Valley 8-81; Cajon 12-75.
Turnovers – Citrus Valley 0; Cajon 2.
Individual statistics
Rushing – Citrus Valley: Martinez 19-127, Douglas 11-54, Lucas 5-21, Finazzo 3-1, Bline 1-(minus-5); Cajon: Sly 10-32, Rivers 1-13, Papatsos 2-6, Powell 7-5, Birmingham 1-5, Seevers 1-(minus-9).
Passing – Citrus Valley: Martinez 6-11-0-36, Finazzo 2-5-0-26, Harris 1-1-0-4; Cajon: Powell 21-35-1-276.
Receiving – Citrus Valley: Bowens 2-26, Harris 4-22, Counce 1-11, Wiseman 1-3; Cajon: Rennick 8-137, Rivers 3-36, Sly 1-28, Holley 3-21, Birmingham 1-17, Papatsos 1-16, Chapman 1-7.
Interceptions – Citrus Valley: #45 1-19; Cajon: None.