Rancho Mirage rallies to win season opener

A 21-point second half and a critical defensive stop at the end of the game helped the Rancho Mirage Rattlers to a 28-25 road win over Hemet in the season-opening varsity football game for both teams Friday night.

“We just didn’t execute, some of that was a little bit of nerves,’” said Rancho Mirage head coach LD Matthews of his team falling behind 20-7 in the first half. “But we had six sophomores that started on offense. The thing I am proud of was the grit and determination not to give up.”

The Rattlers’ only score of the first half came on a 45-yard run by Jeremiah Johnson in the first quarter for a 7-3 lead. But Hemet forged a 20-7 halftime lead before Rancho Mirage rallied behind quarterback Luke Hershberger and a strong rushing and passing attack.

An interception by Rancho Mirage’s Amhari Thomas-White early in the second half set up a 20-yard scoring pass from Hershberger to Johnson. After a defensive stop, Hershberger found Kobee Finnikin for a score on a crossing pattern for a 21-20 lead.

Hemet added a field goal and a safety when Rancho Mirage snapped the ball out of its own end zone on a punt attempt to take a 25-21 lead. But the Rattlers rallied, taking the lead again on Jeremiah Williams’ 17-yard run with just three minutes left.

When Hemet took over, the Bulldogs fumbled the ball, with the Rattlers recovering to secure the victory.

“We struggled on offense at the start a little bit and we had some untimely penalties that killed our momentum,” Matthews said. “We had a couple of holding calls on our receivers, but we didn’t have a lot of jumping offsides. In fact in our final drives we got them to jump offside which helped us.”

The Rattlers will be home Friday to take on a tough Aliso Niguel team that beat the Rattlers last year on the road.