Game of the Week Preview
EL CENTRO — The wait is over for local residents who have been anticipating the start of the 2018 high school football season, as nearly every team in the Imperial Valley will be playing its season opener at its own respective stadium.
Out of the seven local teams playing from Thursday to Saturday, Central Union High takes the honor of participating in our first Game of the Week.
Central will break a five-year-long tradition of opening its season against Yuma’s Kofa High, as the team is set to host La Jolla High of San Diego at 7 p.m. Friday at Cal Jones Field here.
Last season, the Spartans defeated the Vikings, 21-13, in La Jolla.
“Coming into Friday’s game, I feel we prepared pretty well,” said CUHS senior defensive back Leo Necochea. “We have a pretty big group of guys returning, so we’re feeling pretty confident knowing that we beat them last year. They’re going to try to come and get some revenge. That’s why we just gotta step up and go harder.”
Central should have plenty of weapons against La Jolla as the team’s key offensive players — quarterback Deniro Osuna, running backs Jonathan Medina and Angel Nava-Esparza, and wide receivers Thadeo Campbell and Tyrese Marsh — returned from last season.
“I think we’re ready,” Nava, a junior, said. “We’ve been practicing; we’ve been hustling, and coaches have been teaching us stuff that we need to do to win.”
Based on last year’s clash against the Vikings, the Spartans have been working to improve their own offensive and defensive secondary teams, as well as being able to read La Jolla’s offense, Nava explained.
“We probably could’ve even beat them way better and gotten a higher score if we just stayed crisp and made no mistakes,” Nechochea, a senior, said.
The senior defensive back believes that this year’s team has “higher expectations” from what they were able to accomplish last season. That’s saying something, considering “all” the Spartans did was finish with a record of 10-2, beat Brawley Union High School for first time since 2009 and appear in the CIF-SDS Division IV semifinals.
“I expect for us to go undefeated this year, and make it pretty far because our team’s looking real good right now, and we look really healthy,” Nava said.