WEEK 1 RECAP: New QB? No Problem For Hillcrest
RIVERSIDE – What impressed us most about the Vista del Lago-Hillcrest varsity football game on Thursday, Aug. 26, 2026, was the Trojans’ ability to keep their foot down until the game was effectively over.
Hillcrest produced a 13-play drive on its first possession and never went away from its game plan, feeding Vista del Lago a steady diet of senior bruiser Reyez Ortiz and running option zone for new QB Alexander Villasenor. It was a combination that worked, and Villasenor was connecting in the short-to-medium passing attack, so it all looked really good for the Trojans. On the other side, Vista del Lago couldn’t get out of its own way with penalties and missed execution, and not having senior 6-foot-3 receiver Jae’lynn Brown (ankle) available really limited option for QB Josiah Dupree-Boyd.
Michael Tuohy: “It was a little bit of everything. I thought some of it was good (and) I thought some of it was bad, as far as the calls went. A lot of it didn’t go our way but there’s no excuses there. We have to clean it up and be better next week. That’s it. It’s early in the season, we’re making a lot of mistakes and we’re missing a lot of guys but again, no excuses. We still have to find a way to win games. We had some young guys play tonight that got some experience. Win or lose, we know those guys got valid experience that’ll help us later in the season. We have to live with it.”
Travis Carter: “I thought we played lights-out defense in the first half. They’re a really good football team. (Dupree-Boyd) is incredible. He’s an incredible talent and he’s going to get his, especially on some of the scramble-type stuff but also just downfield, It’s really about not giving up the big plays, so I thought our defense did a good job not giving up the long ones that he had last week. It helped that (Jae’lynn Brown) wasn’t out there. He’s an incredible player, too. It’s early in the year and everybody has a lot of stuff to clean up still. I know we do. Re: Reyez Ortiz: He’s been a workhorse going back to last season. We’re just looking for him to try to improve and that’s what he’s doing. Re: Alexander Villasenor: He started some games last year and I thought he did a good job and last week I thought he probably didn’t have as good a game as he would’ve wanted but I thought he made some key plays for us tonight, some key throws (and) some key scrambles. He’s very capable. He can run, he’s smart and he knows our offense. He’s just going to keep getting better.”
Vista del Lago – 0 – 7 – 7 – 6 — 20
Hillcrest – 7 – 20 – 7 – 0 — 34
First quarter
H – Villasenor 4 run (kick failed), 2:48
Second quarter
H – Ortiz 10 pass from Villasenor (Noor kick), 10:59
H – Ortiz 69 run (Noor kick), 7:36
V – Dupree-Boyd 4 run (Abarca kick), 3:18
H – Bernal 42 pass from Villasenor (Noor kick), 2:22
Third quarter
H – Bernal 18 pass from Villasenor (Noor kick), 9:50
V – Preston 40 pass from Dupree-Boyd (Abarca kick), 1:23
Fourth quarter
V – Dupree-Boyd 4 run (kick failed), 7:02
Team statistics
Total plays – Vista del Lago 59; Hillcrest 48.
First downs – Vista del Lago 14; Hillcrest 16.
Penalties – Vista del Lago 16-133; Hillcrest 16-164.
Turnovers – Vista del Lago 1; Hillcrest 0.
Individual statistics
Rushing – Vista del Lago: Adams 15-86, Shelby 10-74, Dupree-Boyd 11-48; Hillcrest: Ortiz 20-172, Villasenor 7-45, Chappell 1-(minus-1).
Passing – Vista del Lago: Dupree-Boyd 10-16-1-108; Hillcrest: Villasenor 14-22-0-139.
Receiving – Vista del Lago: Rodriguez 4-48, Preston 1-40, Adams 3-20, Shelby 1-0; Hillcrest: Bernal 3-64, Ruehl 3-30, Chappell 4-27, Ortiz 2-11, Mabendo 1-11.
Interceptions – Vista del Lago: None; Hillcrest: Bernal 1-7.
INLAND FIELDHOUSE 