WEEK 2 RECAP: Moreno Valley Finding Its Groove
MORENO VALLEY – What impressed us most about the Tahquitz-Moreno Valley varsity football game on Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, was the Vikings defensive commitment to pursuing the ball carrier.
Moreno Valley got edge penetration on nearly every snap and finished with four sacks and seven TFLs. Coach Ben Benitez, himself a MoVal alum, has the ear of his players and it means everything to the level of dedication to the defensive side of the ball. Senior Bryan Orozco and juniors Efrain Martinez and Armani Valencia were in the face of Tahquitz QB Josiah Razeeq all night while limiting Titans RB Khison Isom and giving up just three runs longer than 10 yards.
Stephon Pace: “I wish I knew the answer. We’re just not very good right now. I’m flat-out being honest, we’re not very good. Like, we have sparks (and) we’ve seen signs of us being OK and then a turnover, a penalty, a missed block. We’re young up front and it shows. (Moreno Valley) has dudes up front and the last three weeks each team has had edge rushers that have been good, and we’ve struggled so until we fix that and grow up a little bit, this is Tahquitz football. (The playoff hangover) is big. Oh, it’s big. This group, it’s a fight every day because yes, we did something special a year ago but that was last year. That was a whole different season and this is a whole different team and, you know, the reality of it is people didn’t know who we were and now they do and now we’re being hunted and we’re not mature enough to handle it. We have to stay ahead of the chains, but we run the ball and we lose three (yards) and now you’re second-and-13. Well, now the defense knows what we have to do and we have to do it because we lost three on first down, but you run it again and you lose four and right now we’re just not built that way. We’re young and in spots and kids are playing because they have to play, but we’ll be fine. We’ll grow up a little bit after loss and we’ll be fine. Our practice habits have been bad. I’m not mincing words. We’re not practicing good, and when you don’t practice good this what happens on a Friday night. It’s the old adage: You play how you practice so we practice like this, we play like this; But we’ll bounce back.”
Ben Benitez: “We have a lot of returners on the offensive line. We have four dudes on the o-line who came back and played significant time for us last year. Josiah (Sio) did play a lot last year, but he was behind a senior and obviously he was very talented, and we wanted to respect the program. They guy before (Josiah) was here for four years, but we knew what we had with Josiah we just needed to keep it and I’m thankful he stayed. He’s probably the hardest working football player I’ve ever had. He trains crazy in the off-season. He has a personal trainer, and he comes to the field; I’ve seen him post the videos and he’s out here by himself running. We knew what was coming because of how much prep and hard work he put in. We’re just trying to get (William Davis) some confidence right now. It’s his first year as a starter. He’s been in the program for a few years now but it’s his show now. The lights are a little bright sometimes so having a good run game and having a good offensive line, I mean, I don’t think we’ve given up a sack yet this season. The o-line is doing well in pass protection and in the run game, and that gives us confidence that we can keep trying to ease him in and find our groove. (Davis) has a very veteran receiver group and everything around him is set up for him to be successful. We just have to catch out groove. That first touchdown that Tahquitz scored, that was on me. I was super mad about that. We threw a pick and they got it down near the goal line, but the team is really bought in. We don’t have a lot of guys, but we have a lot of guys who compete. We don’t have transfers, right, so we’ve really built in our program, the culture, the mentality that you have to play with on defense, and we have guys who can go. They’ll run through a brick wall for us so we’re super proud of them and they’re super hard workers.”
Tahquitz – 7 – 0 – 0 – 7 — 14
Moreno Valley – 6 – 15 – 7 – 0 — 28
First quarter
M – Allen 9 pass from Davis (kick failed), 5:09
T – Isom 9 run (Holyoak kick), 2:53
Second quarter
M – Sio 6 run (Sio run), 4:56
M – Mathews 28 pass from Davis (Espinoza kick), 1:46
Third quarter
M – Jaramillo 15 pass from Davis (Espinoza kick), 6:07
Fourth quarter
T – Reyes 13 pass from Razeeq (Holyoak kick), 2:28
Team statistics
Total plays – Tahquitz 55; Moreno Valley 58.
First downs – Tahquitz 10; Moreno Valley 19.
Penalties – Tahquitz 7-70; Moreno Valley 6-50.
Turnovers – Tahquitz 2; Moreno Valley 2.
Individual statistics
Rushing – Tahquitz: Isom 13-70, Razeeq 11-2; Moreno Valley: Sio 32-213, Russell 3-24, Mathews 1-0, Jaramillo 1-(minus-3), Davis 1-(minus-7).
Passing – Tahquitz: Razeeq 12-27-0-161; Moreno Valley: Davis 9-19-2-129.
Receiving – Tahquitz: Butler 3-74, Beddingfield 3-35, Braddock 3-30, Reyes 1-13, Barron 1-9, Isom 1-0; Moreno Valley: Hill 4-43, Mathews 1-28, Allen 2-18, Jaramillo 1-15, Payne 1-6.
Interceptions – Tahquitz: Butler 1-41, Barron 1-0; Moreno Valley: None.
INLAND FIELDHOUSE 