Week’s games produce narrow field of standouts

Week three of the 2018 football season in the Valley wasn’t necessarily the most … how shall we put this … aesthetically pleasing slate of contests one is likely to witness.

Holtville coach Jason Turner made no bones about it, in describing the Vikings’ 31-0 win over Desert Mirage Friday night. “It was ugly,” he said, reflecting on what he considered a “sloppy,” mistake-filled performance by his team. Granted, some of that assessment may be a bit of gamesmanship on Turner’s part — no coach wants to see his team get too puffed up about beating an overmatched opponent. Nevertheless, he wasn’t eager to hand out many kudos for the night.

Our Game of the Week, which saw Vincent Memorial eke out a 6-0 win at Calexico High, certainly wasn’t anybody’s idea of a statistical marvel, at least not on offense. “Our offense just didn’t execute very well tonight,” Vincent Memorial coach David Wong told reporter Murray Anderson after Friday’s game. “Except for that one (scoring) drive, we continually shot ourselves in the foot all night.”

Likewise, Imperial High School couldn’t get much going on the road against Yuma’s Gila Ridge High School. The Hawks held the Tigers’ normally effective running game in check to emerge on the better end of a 16-3 score.

Calipatria coach Mike Swearingen certainly wasn’t finding any silver linings in his team’s 40-7 home-field thrashing at the hands of the Yuma High School Criminals.

“You play the way you practice,” he said, “and we had a lousy week of practice.”

This leaves us with a smaller slate of nominees than usual for this week’s Gridiron Greats contest. Two of our six picks come from Brawley Union’s convincing 56-0 victory over Indio, while another two come from Central’s 57-28 whipping of Kofa High School in Yuma.

Cast your votes at www.ivpressonline.com/gridirongreats.

The winner will be announced in Friday’s edition of the Imperial Valley Press.

Nathan Torrez, Brawley

The junior free safety and wide receiver scored two — one on offense and one on defense — of Brawley’s five second-quarter touchdowns and recovered a fumble that set up another in the Wildcats’ 56-0 thumping of Indio.

Baraquiel Fimbres, Vincent Memorial

The sophomore was a beast Friday night against Calexico. The defensive tackle was in on 14 tackles, including three for a loss. He also registered two forced fumbles, a sack and a fumble recovery in a defensive effort that saw Vincent keep their opponents on their own side of midfield for the last 40 minutes of the game.

Deniro Osuna, Central

The Spartans’ field general connected on 13 of 25 passes for 242 yards and four touchdowns and added another score on the ground in Friday night’s 57-28 victory over Kofa High School in Yuma.

Jose Devoux, Holtville

The sophomore running back carried 12 times for 92 yards, crossed the goal line three times and tallied 38 yards receiving in the Vikings’ shutout of Desert Mirage Friday night.

Michael Moreno, Brawley

The senior running back makes a repeat visit to the ballot after an 11-carry, 148-yard performance against Indio that included a 24-yard touchdown run. Moreno also had a fumble recovery on defense for good measure.

Zachary Morquecho, Central

The senior lineman was a force on defense Friday night, sacking Kofa quarterback Robert Cancio three times in tallying half of his six total tackles.