Southwest slides past Palo Verde 41-21
EL CENTRO — The Southwest Eagles are no pushovers; that much has to be said. This year’s incarnation might not match up well with the juggernauts of yester (read: last) year, but they’re not about to up and wither on the vine, either.
After bumping up against a brick wall in Granite Hills last week, the Eagles didn’t waste any time with shellshock. Instead, they picked themselves up, dusted off their knee-pants and went to work defending the nest Friday evening, beating a resilient Palo Verde team 41-21, to bring their overall record even at 3-3 with a mark of 1-0 in the Imperial Valley League.
Southwest turned in a solid all-around performance in this one, generating offense in a variety of ways and generally blunting the Yellowjacket attack into ineffectiveness outside of garbage time.
Eagle quarterback/linebacker/punter Logan Chell had himself quite a game.
After punting it away on the opening series, Chell settled in and began methodically picking apart the Yellowjacket defense with a combination of savvy option reads and timely passes.
On the Eagles’ second possession the do-everything senior … did everything. He picked up three first downs (two rushing, one passing), twice converting on fourth — including on a drive-capping 11-yard pass to Tristan Smith to put the Eagles up 7-0 after the successful PAT.
The early score seemed to jazz up the Southwest defense. They followed it up by stuffing Palo Verde three straight times, forcing them to punt.
Starting at the Palo Verde 35, Chell soon had the offense humming again. A few runs by Wesley Dykeman here, a few QB keepers there, add a pass to Steven Singh and a dash of Reece Quintero and the Eagles got another six points (on a short-yardage Quintero push). After the PAT, it was 14-0, and Southwest was looking as fit as they have all year.
And they kept on at it. They forced another three-and-out, got the ball at their own 40, and before anyone could say boo, there was Quintero sashaying his way in for another score, this time on an inside-out run from 39 yards out, making it 21-0 in the middle of the second quarter.
On the next Palo Verde possession, the Eagles committed their one major gaffe of the evening, and it wound up costing them.
Southwest successfully bottled up the Yellowjacket ground game once again, forcing them into another three-and-out situation, but this time, Palo Verde decided to get tricky. Punter Alejandro Lee took the snap and then took off, cantering down the sideline for a big gain.
The conversion seemed to fire up the Yellowjackets and temporarily demoralize the Eagles. Palo Verde subsequently worked the ball in for a touchdown on several runs and a red zone pass to bring things to 21-7.
Southwest tried to answer, but a couple of solid plays by Chell (a 20-yard run and 24-yard pass to Smith) were negated by holding penalties, leading to a punt, which in turn lead to Palo Verde QB Jake Rayner getting sacked to end the half.
In the second half, things opened in familiar fashion, with Palo Verde going three-and-out, and Southwest going on a long drive afterward.
This Eagles’ drive consisted mostly of handoffs to Benji Alvarez and got them all the way into the red zone, before they faced a fourth down and settled for a field goal attempt that missed.
The miss didn’t hurt the Eagles too badly. Two plays later, they had the ball back, as Rayner was intercepted by Tristan Smith, who had a good return.
Southwest took this gift-horse and rode it past the goal line, getting another six on a Chell keeper, pushing their lead to 28-7.
At this point, the Eagles began to cycle in some of their defensive reserves. Palo Verde took advantage of this, moving the ball side-to-side on them and uncorking a lengthy touchdown drive (with a successful two-point conversion) to make it 28-15 with 8:23 to go.
But the Eagles had answers. The next Palo Verde possession ended soon after it began, with the Yellowjackets fumbling away.
Southwest gratefully accepted the ball and gave it to Tristan Smith, who ran it in on a long endaround to increase the lead to 35-15.
A follow-up score by Isaiah Torres made it 41-15, which looked certain to be the final margin, but Palo Verde had other ideas. The Yellowjackets stuck it out seemingly on principle, running a two-minute drill in a game they had no chance to win. To their credit, it worked. They got a score to make it 41-21, but of course it didn’t matter. The clock ran out and Southwest walked away with the W.
The Eagles next play cross-town rival Central Union Friday for the City Championship.