Arroyo celebrates a victory, but will they celebrate tonight? Temple City leads the all-time series 16-14. Long live the "Mid Valley Classic"
Good Morning!
“Mid Valley Classic”:
Game Twenty-Five: September 10, 2004 at Temple City
“All Aboard! The Knight Train”
A semifinal bound Arroyo looked sloppy at times in a 37-20 victory over the Rams.
Case in point the Knights got into the end zone three times on its first possession but the points only stayed on the board after the third try when Dominic Salmon went 16-yards to Eric Perez.
TC responded with Carlos Lopez’s 95-yard kick-off return to tie the score.
Arroyo’s Raul Ramirez made it 14-7 on a six-yard run, but Temple City tied the game when two defenders collided and Matt Lopez turned a short slant into an 86-yard score.
Late in the half the Knights took control and the win thanks to the play of Salmon (14-27-304-yards 3Tds), Ramirez (124-yards 2Tds), and Sergio Leon (5-catches 149-yards Td).
“Mid Valley Classic”
Game Twenty-Six: September 9, 2005 at Arroyo
“Arroyo Edges Temple City”
Five lead changes, big plays, made by big stars, but the Knights 21-17 wasn’t as much a celebration as it was a relief.
“It was embarrassing; I don’t care what the score was. Our expectation level was way more than we saw out here. I would refund everybody their money,” said Arroyo coach Jim Singiser.
TC led 10-7 at the half thanks to a 10-yard pass from Ricky Arredondo to Dwight Broadnax, but it was Rickey Amaya’s 24-yard run with 2:47 remaining that gave the Knights the win.
Sergio Leon caught a 32-yard touchdown pass, returned a 43-yard interception for a touchdown, and added all the extra points for the victors. The Rams were led by Tsun Tsai’s 143-yards on 33-carries.
“Mid Valley Classic”
Game Twenty-Seven: September 8, 2006 at Temple City
“Dwight’s Knight, Broadnax Prince of the City”
Quite often, no one puts it better than Arroyo’s Jim Singiser did to his team after the Rams 35-14 win: “You got beat by a guy who played both ways all night, ran the ball over thirty times, played special teams, didn’t get hurt, didn’t tire, and was still playing hard at the end and he tore you a new one.”
Dwight Broadnax carried the ball 31-times for 227-yards for a touchdown and returned an interception 47-yards for another six.
TC’s Charles Kim returned a fumble 36-yards for the game’s first score, Broadnax made his one handed pick and took it back to make the score 14-0. Riley Saxon directed the offense on a 74-yard drive and before Arroyo could get off the floor they were down three touchdowns.
“Mid Valley Classic”
Game Twenty-Eight: September 7, 2007 at Arroyo
“Sotelo Boots Arroyo to Win”
The Knights Mike Sotelo kicked a 25-yard field goal with five seconds remaining to give Arroyo a 38-35 victory.
Late in the third Brian Partida connected with Jose Martinez for a 24-yard score that gave the Knights a 35-21 lead.
TC’s Williams Do would carry five defenders across the goal line with nine minutes to play to make it 35-28. Getting the the ball back at its 13 after stopping Arroyo, Morgan Hatch led the Rams on an 87-yard drive highlighted by a 28-yard pass to Joe Reasner and completed by Josh Willard’s third crash into the end zone on the evening.
Finally with 1:51 to play Brian Partida connected with Chris Rodriguez for 16-yards to set up Sotelo’s game winner.
Partida finished 18 of 27 for 229-yards and three touchdowns for Arroyo. Temple City’s Do rushed for 162-yards on 30-carries. On the winning drive Do sacked Partida.
Martinez returned the opening kick-off 93-yards for a touchdown (He also scored on a 60-yard bomb from Partida at the end of the first half).
“Hey 12-seconds into my coaching debut I’m down 7-0,” said TC’s Randy Backus after his first game.
“Mid Valley Classic”
Game Twenty-Nine: September 12, 2008 at Temple City
“Hatch Scratch Fever!”
Morgan Hatch fired four touchdown passes in the Rams 34-0 rout of the Knights. Gianni Bruno-Lopez caught the first for a 24-yard score in the second quarter. Joey Stewart caught the next on a three-yard toss. With 18-seconds left in the half he went 40-yards over the top to Lopez again and it was 21-0 at the break.
At the end of the third Hatch went 59-yards to Kenny Werner for his fourth touchdown. Max Ruckle, earlier, added a 13-yard scoring run and the win was complete.
“We gotta grow from it,” said Jim Singiser. “Like (Steve) Bogan said you can only call yourself young for about four weeks and you’re not young anymore.”
“Mid Valley Classic”
Game Thirty: November 21, 2008 at Temple City
The first playoff match up between the schools in 30-years was measured, carefully played, and far different than the season opener two months before. Morgan Hatch threw just one touchdown pass (of course to Gianni Bruno-Lopez) and the Rams held on for a 7-6 victory.
The Knights struggled offensively thanks to a TC defense that picked up sacks by Ryan Watkins and Nick Montenegro. Alex “Blackjack” Dunn recovered a fumble and Joey Stewart chimed in with 14-tackles to make life miserable for Arroyo freshman quarterback Steven Rivera.
Max Ruckle added 114-yards on the ground as Temple City would go on to victory the next week against Azusa, and extend its season into an unlikely semifinal appearance.
I love this game…
Stay thirsty my friends…
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