Spartans escape Cardinals 27-22
Spartans escape Cardinals 27-22
Backs against the wall facing potentially the first loss in program history since the 2016 CIF State Division 6-A Championship game, Strathmore High School’s football team came together in the final seconds of Friday’s game and pulled out a 27-22 win over Orosi in a highly anticipated matchup.
Ranked No. 1 in Div. VI by Maxpreps.com, the defending CIF State Div. 6-AA state champion Spartans (3-0) lost a 21-14 lead in the last three minutes of the game after the No. 3 Cardinals’ running back Ismael Perez scored a very short 1-yard touchdown and star OHS running back Jerry Huerta ran the ball in for a successful 2-point conversion and a 22-21 lead.
Strathmore got the ball back but went four-and-out, turning the ball over on their own 33yard line. But as luck would have it, on Orosi’s first play of the drive they fumbled the ball and the Spartans recovered on the 32-yard line.
Two big receptions by SHS junior wide receiver Lee Navarro for 28-yards and then 27-yards from junior quarterback Cristian Rodriguez moved the ball deep into Cardinals territory. A handoff to freshman running back Carlos Moreno put the ball on the Cardinals 1-yard line but back-to-back penalties moved the ball back to Orosi’s 9-yard line.
After calling a timeout, Strathmore’s Rodriguez kept the ball and ran through a couple of Orosi defenders for the gamewinning touchdown.
“The football gods blessed us with a turnover in the end and it was on, cause I think the fat lady was singing at one point and you saw worry in people’s eyes but it’s a throwback to that game last year,” SHS head coach Jeromy Blackwell said. “And so they’re still believers. And I think one thing to our advantage is in the back of people’s mind they know they’re playing a really good football team. That coach had them ready though.”
While both teams are well known for their run game, the Spartans was lacking for most of the game and for the first time in over a year Strathmore finished with no rusher recording 100-or-more yards. Junior running back Alonso Acevedo
topped out at 79-yards on eight carries after scoring a 46-yard touchdown and exiting the game at the end of the third quarter with an injury.
Rodriguez rushed for 50 yards and two touchdowns on two carries and also had a 24-yard touchdown run that gave Strathmore the 21-14 lead in the fourth quarter after Orosi’s Huerta scored on a 19-yard run and Perez converted for two to tie the game. Strathmore’s only other score came in the beginning of the second quarter when senior defensive back Fabian Alcantar picked off Orosi’s Ethan Lara for a 90-yard return and the first score of the game.
Blackwell said Orosi came out with a lot of fire but that Strathmore was executing plays. But the Spartans momentum began to shift in the third quarter with explosive hits from senior defensive lineman Damian Valencia.
“Whenever you get 11 guys going 1-0, that’s all that matters, and then suddenly it all feeds itself,” Blackwell said. “Execution fuels emotion and then you start getting all excited. It’s like inertia. A body in motion stays in motion and it just rolls, that’s how the momentum works.”