Look for results from high school football Friday
lead the big-cat kingdom to victory
B RAWLEY — It wasn’t the prettiest second half of football, but thanks to a high-powered first half of play, the Brawley Union High School football team worked to hold off Imperial High School 27-20 in the 10th Game of the Week of the season at Warne Field here on Friday night.
The Wildcats recorded all their scores in the first half of the game, securing a 27-7 lead by the half.
Helping lead Brawley to the end zone early and often was senior quarterback Ethan Torrez.
Torrez led the Wildcats in a 6:39 opening-game drive that resulted in a 19-yard passing touchdown to Casey Kline, who is recovering from a shoulder injury sustained just two weeks ago.
“Ethan did a really good job for us,” said Wildcat head coach Jon Self.
After the successful PAT by Ivan Jauregui, the Wildcats have a 7-0 lead with 5:21 left on the clock.
The Brawley defense took over from there, forcing the Tigers to punt the ball away on 4-and-12.
The kick gave Brawley great field position after George Mickle brought the ball to the 48-yard line, setting the stage for another Wildcat score.
Brawley moved down the field and into Tiger territory on the legs and grit of running back Michael Moreno, who helped bring the home team near Imperial’s 30yard line.
The Wildcats ended up finding the end zone once again in the hands of Kline, who received a 31yard pass from Mickle that ignited the Wildcat fans and players.
While the Wildcat offense was connecting smoothly in the first quarter, the Tigers were having trouble doing the same as a late first-quarter drive was halted by the first of a handful of fumbles and interceptions.
Brawley recovered the fumble to take control of the game at the start of the second quarter, which eventually led to another score.
Helping Brawley reach the end zone this time was Moreno, who broke a few tackles to score on an 11-yard rush that gave Brawley a 20-0 lead after a failed PAT with 8:54 left in the half.
The score appeared to wake up the Tigers, who worked to put up their first score of the game on a 17-yard pass from Joey Tarango to Santiago De La Torre, who also added the PAT to bring the score to 20-7 with 6:30 left in the half.
The score fired up the Tigers that then worked to cause and recover a Brawley fumble, yet could not capitalize on the turnover and were forced to punt the ball away.
Brawley took over possession of the ball and raced to the end zone, with Moreno carrying the ball 6 yards for the score. The Jauregui PAT gave Brawley a 27-2 lead with 1:41 left before the half, which eventually gave Imperial enough time to reach the Brawley 3-yard line, but an interception in the end zone ended the threat and marked the end of the first half.
The third quarter belonged to the Tigers, who worked to reach the end zone two times on the legs of Brandon Hueso, who had rushing scores of 23 and 11-yards to narrow Brawley’s lead 27-20 with 1:10 left before the fourth quarter.
While the fourth quarter did not result in scores for either team, it showcased the grit of both defenses as they worked to cause multiple fumbles, which eventually favored Brawley.
“I think we played well overall,” Self said. “We got some good stops when we needed them and caused some turnovers that helped us.”
The win moves Brawley to 3-1 in league and 6-3 overall, while Imperial drops to 1-3 in IVL and 3-6 overall.
Both teams wrap up the regular season next week with Brawley traveling to face Central Union High School in the 74th annual Bell Game and Imperial hosting Palo Verde Valley High School.