Local FB teams to take the field tonight
Local FB teams to take the field tonight SHS to host Roosevelt after Mira Monte cancels
After not having a 2020 season, all five Orange Belt football teams will take the field for the first time tonight to open the 2021 season.
Porterville High will host North at Rankin Stadium and Granite Hills will travel to Orange Cove for games scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Strathmore will host Roosevelt, Monache will travel to Golden West and Lindsay will travel to Bishop Union for games all set for 7.
PHS, Granite, Monache and Strathmore all didn’t play at all during the 2020-2021 school year as the 2020 season was lost and the Porterville Unified School District chose to field football teams in the spring.
PHS VS. NORTH AT RANKIN STADIUM, 7:30 P.M. TODAY
New PHS coach Keith Thompson said the team has a good mix of juniors and seniors. But Thompson said he still expects mistakes in the first game.
Senior players who are leading Porterville in the 2021 season are Joseph Noriega, Marcos Loya, Hayden Scott, Sandro Martinez and Isaiah Ellis.
Thompson said he’s expected Ellis and Scott to have outstanding seasons.
For three seasons playing football Ellis has about 3,000 total yards from scrimmage and scored 25 total touchdowns.
As of today, there are no major injuries with the Panthers.
In the upcoming season Thomson said, “We are hoping to get our legs behind us. The goal is to be playing our best football when we get to EYL (East Yosemite League).
“Every team in the EYL has improved. That’s when we have to play our best football going into week 1 of the EYL season.”
Porterville will play its first EYL game at home against Mission Oak on October 1.
MONACHE AT GOLDEN WEST, 7 P.M. TODAY
“It has been 18-24 months since the team has played any football,” said Shane Focke, entering his second season as Monache’s coach.
His expectation for the team is to come together as a team and build a family foundation.
Focke said his team came out of last week’s scrimmage relatively healthy with only a couple of injuries.
Monache will be led by Brysn Hornsby, David Leyva, Josiah Perez, Damion Ezpinoza and Jacob Vasquez.
“Only three players had played varsity football before,” Focke said.
ROOSEVELT AT STRATHMORE, 7 P.M. TODAY
Strathmore coach Jeromy Blackwell described his team as “very inexperienced.”
There are five players with varsity experience who play on the varsity in 2019 who are expected to lead the team: Jaylen Oats, Alex Guzman, Carlos Moreno, Manuel Andrade, Alex Rodriguez.
Moreno has put together remarkable stats. Moreno has about 2,000 yards in his previous two seasons. He is the team leader for strathmore.
“There are lots of guys that are ready to go wild,” Blackwell said. “The Strathmore players are very excited for the new season to start. They are ready to play after 635 days of not playing football.”
The team still has high expectations. “Our team goal is always the same, we want to be the best football team that’s possible,’’ said Blackwell. “The only way to do that is give it time, work, and effort.”
About his team’s scrimmage, Blackwell said it executed well but “our technique was a little off but that’s something that they can fix with the film,” Blackwell said.
Strathmore has set a high bar, with three straight Valley titles and three straight state championship appearances from 2016-2018, including a state titel in 2017.
Strathmore was supposed to play at Mira Monte today but that game was canceled due to Mira Monte having a positive COVID-19 test with its team. But the Spartans were able to pick up the game with Roosevelt.
According to Thompson the best players that he is expected are Isaiah Illies and Hayden Scott.
For three seasons playing football Isaiah Illies has about 3000 total yards from scrimmage and scored 25 total
touchdowns.
As of today, there are no major injuries with Panthers
In the upcoming season Thomson said “We are hoping to get our legs behind us. The goal is to be playing our best football when we get to EYL”.
“Every team in the EYL has improved”. Thompson said, “That’s when we have to play our best football going into week 1 of EYL season”
Porterville will be playing their first home game playing against Mission Oak
GRANITE HILLS AT ORANGE COVE, 7:30 P.M. TODAY
The expectation for the GHHS football season is to rebuild the program. “It will be tough to tell depending which players play football,” said new coach Carl Scudder.
“We got some good senior players that are coming back to step in for us and a couple of juniors working harder.
Because of COVID-19 and other things happening when the season ended in 2019 there were about 30 players in the program.
There are four senior players who will help lead the team: Adam Sandoval, Manny Aguilar, Gage Snider and Roberto Ortiz, who all played varsity as sophomores during the 2019 season.
Granite Hills first regular season home game will be against Kern Vallen on August 27.
LINDSAY AT BISHOP UNION,
7 P.M. TODAY
Casey Higginbotham started as Lindsay’s head coach in March 2020 just before before the COVID-19 pandemic. Lindsay had a short season last spring..
This will be Higginbotham’s first full season as Lindsay’s coach. Last season Lindsay played three games in March and April, with one game canceled.
Lindsay starts with a difficult nonleague schedule. Higginbotham said Lindsay’s first four games are all against outstanding teams with outstanding coaches.
He added he expects the East Sequoia League race to be wide open. “There isn’t one team that can’t beat another team in our league,” Higginbotham said.
“My expectations for the season is that we are a very competitive team. Our fundamentals are down, we are fundamentally sound team”.
The senior leaders are captains are Richie Diaz, Diego Salas and Elion Ibarra.
Diaz was the team’s Most Valuable Player for the short season last spring.
Higginbotham said there are four players who are injured who won’t play against Bishop Union.
“We have a good (set) of young players on the team and will be relying on underclassmen and young players like sophomores, ‘’ said Higginbotham. “We’re relying on 9th and 10th grade, so we’re going to be a young team.”