INLAND FIELDHOUSE

REDLANDS – What impressed us most about the Yucaipa-Citrus Valley varsity football game on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023, was the Blackhawks coach.

Kurt Bruich is the son of a coaching legend, Dick Bruich. Everyone knows that. But Kurt has been doing this for a long time now, too, and has built his own iconography in Redlands after developing REV’s program into one of the best in the Inland Area despite not having a football stadium before taking over at Citrus Valley. The guy bleeds football and loves to win and his players see it and love him for it.

Justin Price: “It’s hard because they’ve been playing with two quarterbacks in league so it’s like preparing for two totally different schemes. We came out and I thought we played really well to start but we couldn’t finish in the red zone, missed a kick, had a kick blocked and those are big differences in a game like this. When you get those big momentum swings, especially when you’re the underdog, it hurts your psyche a little bit. The kids battled hard but (Citrus Valley) deserves it. They’re the league champions. I don’t think this is going to improve anything, honestly. Even if we’d won tonight, we would’ve lost the tiebreaker so we’re an at-large either way. For us, we wanted to come out and play we and hopefully get a win going into the playoffs and we didn’t do that. We didn’t have a bad season. We just weren’t competitive enough against the top teams in the CBL. Kudos to their coach. He does a great job and always has done great jobs with his teams. I have a lot of respect for that sideline and what they do.”

Kurt Bruich: “Coming from REV and being very successful there as far as CBL goes, fighting through an almost, and an almost and then COVID, and finally getting one is very, very special. We have a very special group of kids as well. I couldn’t be prouder of this team and this program, this school, the whole works. My coaching staff is amazing. We feel like we have a lot of momentum and a lot of confidence so hopefully we can continue it.”

Yucaipa – 0 – 0 – 0 – 7 — 7
Citrus Valley – 7 – 21 – 7 – 7 — 42
First quarter
CV – Martinez 1 run (Brine kick), 0:27
Second quarter
CV – Douglas 14 pass from Martinez (Brine kick), 9:45
CV – Martinez 18 run (Brine kick), 5:15
CV – Harris 13 pass from Martinez (Brine kick), 1:16
Third quarter
CV – Counce 99 kickoff return (Brine kick), 11:44
Fourth quarter
CV – Counce 101 fumble return (Brine kick), 10:10
Y – Hungerford 39 pass from Smith (Crain kick), 5:30
Team statistics
Total plays – Yucaipa 65; Citrus Valley 32.
First downs – Yucaipa 15; Citrus Valley 7.
Penalties – Yucaipa 0-0; Citrus Valley 7-60.
Turnovers – Yucaipa 3; Citrus Valley 1.
Individual statistics
Rushing – Yucaipa: Becerra 9-50, Barbour 15-30, Pistilli 4-22, Smith 5-22, Schaefer 1-10, Sanchez 1-8, Turner 6-(minus-2); Citrus Valley: Martinez 8-64, Douglas 2-18, Lucas 2-8, Johnson 1-(minus-4).
Passing – Yucaipa: Smith 3-4-0-76, Turner 8-15-1-65; Citrus Valley: Martinez 7-10-0-129, Finazzo 1-3-1-1.
Receiving – Yucaipa: Hungerford 4-87, Crain 1-19, McCarty 2-12, Price 1-7, Smith 1-6, Sanchez 1-4; Citrus Valley: Counce 1-47, Douglas 3-42, Wiseman 1-20, Harris 2-20, Bowens 1-1.
Interceptions – Yucaipa: Turner 1-0; Citrus Valley: Bowens 1-11.