Panther defense holds Castillo and Spartans to three in second half.
(Pomona) Elisha Henley intercepted Aaron Cantu’s final pass attempt as time expired to seal a 33-27 come-from-behind victory Friday night for the Diamond Ranch Panthers over the Schurr Spartans in a CIF Southeast Division quarter final match-up.
Diamond Ranch trailed almost the entire contest and finally took the lead with 1:26 left in the final frame when Chase Price scored on a four yard run. The Panthers went for two and made it on a Gus Viramontes keeper.
Getting the score was no easy task for Diamond Ranch as they needed a 30-yard run from Viramontes on third and 16 and a 40-yard pass from Viramontes to Henley on third and fourteen to set up the final score.
The Spartans got out of the gate in high style when on the fifth play of their first drive, Cantu let it fly from his own 24. Angel Sanchez out dueled the defender for the ball and took it the rest of the way for the score. Sanchez also added the extra point and Schurr had the early lead. Cantu came to play hitting on 21 of 33 passes for 332-yards and a touchdown.
Diamond Ranch came right back with a score of their own with Amari Statten capping four play drive with 42-yard run.
Nathan Ayon set the Spartans up for their next score returning the ensuing kick-off 79-yards to the Panther 20. A penalty by Diamond Ranch pushed the ball ahead another ten yards.
Nicholas Castillo scored on the next play on a 10-yard run to give Schurr the 14-7 advantage.
Aaron Cantu airs it out against Diamond Ranch
The two teams traded field goals, Michael Stamp from 48 and 25-yards and Sanchez from 26 until late in the first half. Sanchez finished the night with three catches for 130-yards, a touchdown and the two fields goals.
The Spartans driving down the field with time running out, looked to be stopped short on third down at the Panther 29. Aided by a Diamond Ranch time out, Schurr came out and lined up in field goal formation. The Spartans quickly jumped into a regular formation and Castillo carried the ball 16-yards to Panther one.
One play later Castillo scored his second touchdown of the night to give the Spartans all the momentum heading in to the locker rooms a the half.
“I told my team at half time, the first half is done. I also gave them a quote from Lou Holtz on how the Good Lord gave us two eyes in the front of our head and not the back to look forward to the future and not back to the past” Panther head coach Roddy Layton said after the game.
The Panthers took the word of their coach to heart and came out and limited the potent Spartan offense in the second half to a lone 23-yard field goal by Sanchez.
On offense Diamond Ranch scored on thief first drive to start the second half on a 21-yard touchdown from Viramontes to Brandon Taylor.
The Panthers pulled to within two on a 22-yard run from Aaron Almond. On both scores Diamond Ranch went for two but were denied.
Schurr started the ensuing drive from their own 20 and marched down the field as smoothly as they had done in the first half gaining 79-yards on nine plays. It was the tenth play that turned out to be a disaster for the Spartans.
Castillo took a short pass and headed toward the goal line where he was met at seven by Panther defenders. A couple of Spartans joined the scrum as well as more Diamond Ranch defenders. No whistle blew when forward progress appeared to be stopped and both teams continued the struggle. The Spartans seemed to be getting the upper hand as the pile moved closer to the goal line. At the one, the pile crumbled and a referee’s bean bag immediately was throw down indicating a fumble. Once the piled was peeled away, it was the Panthers in possession of the football setting up the go ahead drive.
With two timeouts and 1:26 Schurr drove the length of the field on catches of nine, 11, 23, 15 and 13-yards by Carlos Arredondo and another of 11-yards by Castillo to set the table for the last second dramatics. Arredondo finished the evening and his high school career with a stellar performance of 150-yards on 13 catches.
Diamond Ranch moves on to play South Hills in a rematch of last years quarter finals match that the Panthers won 15-12.
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