By Matt Schuler
(Hacienda Heights)-Wilson converted three early turnovers into touchdowns and the Wildcats withstood a late La Puente Comeback to give the Warriors their first loss of the season, 36-20, Friday night at Wilson High School.
Wildcat Coach Brian Zavala praised his team’s defensive effort after the game.
“We predicate our defense about takeaways,” said Zavala. “It’s what we build our program around.”
LP scored on its first possession and it was 7-0 early after Jose Perez punched in a 1-yard TD run off tackle. Perez finished with 115 rushing yards and two total TD’s off 18 carries.
But the lead didn’t last long and Wilson responded with 4 consecutive touchdowns to make it 29-7 three minutes into the third.
“We didn’t play hard enough,” Said LP head coach Brandon Rohrer. “Defense got some bad breaks tonight. We got to get better.”
It was tied at 7 when Josh Morales connected with J.R Nelson on a 5-yard flat rout in the end zone, grabbing a touchdown lead with 37 seconds left before half. On the ensuing kickoff return Perez was hit hard, jarring the ball loose and Keith Hawk picked it up and ran it 20-yards into the end zone; digging a 21-7 hole before halftime that would inevitably be too deep to climb out of.
Morales finished with 80 yards rushing and scored two touchdowns for Wilson, one rushing and another through the air.
La Puente battled back and when Perez scored on a fourth and one attempt and Ivan Vasquez hooked up with Josh Paniagua on a 27 yard TD to close the gap, but the Warriors missed the extra point attempt and it was still a two possession game, 29-20 with 8:42 in the fourth.
The Cats ran time off the clock and Gustavo Garcia put the icing on the cake with a 1-yard TD run with 3 minutes left to play.
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