Prep football
Get the lowdown and highlights of the best of Friday’s high school football games.
CHINO » By all accounts, it was not the same. But by the time the fourth quarter rolled around, this six months-delayed Milk Can had the same intensity as if it had been played in the fall.
Chino was thrown for a loss on fourth down at the Don Lugo 7 with 33 seconds left and the Conquistadores held on for a 20-14 victory Friday night at Chino High School to win the Milk Can for the fifth straight year.
“We made way too many mistakes,” Don Lugo coach Greg Gano said. “But it means a lot to win this for the fifth straight year.”
Don Lugo (1-0) led 14-0 before Chino tied the score in the third quarter.
Senior Gary Garcia scored his third touchdown of the game, a 1-yard run to give Don Lugo a 20-14 lead with 5:38 left.
“It was all will and heart to win,” Garcia said. “We want to take advantage of a great opportunity that God gave us to play this season.”
Garcia finished with 147 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries and caught a 72-yard touchdown pass.
Chino (0-2) came right back with a methodical rushing attack.
On third-and-2 from the 7, a pass into the end zone to Trevion Kimbrough was broken up by Don Lugo. Then on fourth down, a play that was designed to be a misdirection halfback pass, Kimbrough never got a chance to throw the ball.
“I feel like we left 21 points out there,” Chino coach Joey LaRosa said.
There were many big plays in the game, one of which stood out late in the first half.
After Chino’s Joseph DeJulia (163 yards rushing) scored his first of two touchdowns with 47 seconds left in the half to make it 14-7, the Cowboys’ Daniel Nakashima appeared to intercept a pass and return it 75 yards for a touchdown with 2 seconds left.
But the play was called back for an illegal block, and Chino was unable to score on the half’s final play.
“I think it was tough, because he (Nakashima) was already gone, it was behind the play,” LaRosa said. “If it was a penalty.”
Don Lugo was hurt more by penalties, to the tune of 82 yards in the first half.
The Conquistadores scored the game’s first touchdown in the first quarter on a double pass as Dylan Young hit an uncovered Garcia for a 72-yard score.
Despite the win, it didn’t feel like a regular Milk Can win for Gano.
“It’s not the same. It’s not the same without all the fans,” he said.