Temple City & Alhambra went back and forth on Friday night.
By Joe Torosian
(Temple City)—Benny Olguin’s pick of Justin Bowman with 42-seconds to play secured Alhambra’s 32-29 victory over Temple City on Friday night.
The Rams took a 21-20 lead into the locker room at halftime, and in the opening moments of the third, the Moors took it right back. After recovering a pooched kick-off, Alhambra used three plays before Salman Gurung punched in from 2-yards out.
The Moors lead held up till the start of the fourth quarter. At the 11:48 mark, Bowman found Daniel Centeno on a short route the speedy receiver turned into a 57-yard touchdown. After converting the deuce, the Rams led 29-26.
With 6:04 remaining, Centeno stopped a Moors drive with an interception at the TC 15.
Alhambra regained possession late in the fourth. A 30-yard connection from Julien Garcia to Jared Araiza took the ball the Rams one. From there, Gurung found paydirt and the eventual game winner.
For Alhambra Garcia completed 9 of 19 for 199 yards and two touchdowns along with an interception. Araiza had 4 receptions for 82 yards and a score – a 92-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Gurung had 13 carries for 46 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The Moors had 298 total yards.
For Temple City Bowman was 17 of 28 for 295 yard and 4 touchdowns with a pick. The Ramd finished with 336 yards overall
The loss dropped Temple City to 1-2 while the Moors evened their record at 1-1.
Alhambra lost at South Pasadena by only three points last season, and the Tigers had a pretty good team. That’s how close we got to having a winning record.
But, I see your main point. We still have a lot of work cut out for us.
I don’t agree with Alhambra being back to a competitive level when they haven’t played a close game against a good team. BG you can see there o the way back as they have been competitive with the big boys such as El rancho and Norwalk.
I love Ron Vroomans loyalty to his program. Good or bad he has the “programs” back. Key word being LOYALTY.
@ @ron: I’m hoping that we can compete with the “big boys” as early as this year. A win on the road against either Montebello or Schurr would be huge for the Alhambra program. It will be a daunting task, but it’s not impossible.
I agree with you about the Almont League; it’s been down since at least 2011, which was the last season Alhambra and San Gabriel had good teams.
But, I believe it’s coming back. Montebello and Schurr are deservedly the current favorites, but AHS and Bell Gardens are becoming competitive again.
@ Not a Fan of Rams Fan: Well, OK.
But, it’s not as if you’re going to get much information about Alhambra High or any of the other AUSD programs in the San Gabriel Valley Newspapers. I do my best to provide quality information in an area where it’s seriously lacking.
If you’re not interested in AHS football, then you might want to do your reading elsewhere. Have a pleasant day!
The only thing I think we can all agree on is that Rams Fan does not know football. That and Stat man talks wayyy too much.
@my 2 cents has no sense,
A league title? You’re kidding right? Not going to happen in my life time or yours. I never even suggested that would be a realistic goal. A successful season would be a winning season in my opinion. Something the Rams have not had since 2009. How can you even say a 1-2 record shows that they have “improved by leaps and bounds”? Your statement, “Even if TC finishes the season 2-8. Just the mere fact they are capable of competing is better than before. ” defies logic. How can they be competing better than before if they aren’t improving their record? 2-8 last year, 3-7 the 2 years before. But you think 2-8 is better because they’re competing better than before? Like I said, you’re a clown who refuses to accept the obvious.
Yea we may need up with a winning because we play San Gabriel, keppel, la Wilson and two toss up games against south Pasadena and bell gardens team that looks much improved. But when is Eric going to have Alhambra competeing aginst the big boys. If u want to compare Gils teams to Erics u can’t because the almont was a much tougher league then when Gil was in charge.
@Rams Fan, that proves you don’t get it and probably never will. You judge success purely on winning league titles. What about fielding a respectable team being able to compete week after week and year after year? Compare to the last several years, this year’s TC team, with the same demographics, has improved by leaps and bounds. Everyone sees it but you! Yes, San Marino had one dream season. By your definition, every other season besides that one is an utterly failure and they should probably fire their coach. With almost the exact same demographic as TC, San Marino is one of the better programs in the area. That is, by everyone else’s definition but yours. You might as well partition for TC to fire your HC now because no coach, not even Vince Lombardi, could live up to the standards you have set for the program. Even if TC finishes the season 2-8. Just the mere fact they are capable of competing is better than before. But of course unless they win a league title, in the new HC’s first year, they are just a bunch of losers, to you. WOW!
@ Anonymous (same dude, different dude?): You’re working hard to be a master of distortion. You’re going to believe what you want to believe anyway, regardless of how many facts I set forth.
I’ve worked for six different head coaches at Alhambra High, and my loyalty, first and foremost, is to the program.
Having said that, it is a fact that Eric and his assistants are an exceptionally hard-working group of coaches. They are generally well-prepared for games, but it’s also up to the players to execute.
Your agenda is clearly to “get rid of the coaches.” We’ve improved each year with the current group, but that’s not good enough for you. We finally made the playoffs again last year, but, apparently, that’s not good enough, either.
What if we end up with a winning record this season? (We actually have a decent shot at it.) Would that satisfy you?
It’s not like the current staff is competing against a legacy of recent football greatness at Alhambra High.
Coach Ruedaflores had some talented teams in the early 2000’s that underachieved, in my opinion. And, Ruedaflores’ teams won just two league co-championships in his 21 seasons at the helm of the AHS varsity football team. He also had a playoff coaching record of only 2-12, with 10 first-round exits.
Ruedaflores’ successor, Lou Torres, had us on the right track with a 9-3 finish and an appearance in the CIF quarterfinals in 2011. But, there was considerable behind-the-scenes meddling, and, possibly, other factors which caused Coach Torres to be forced out. Then, we got Kanach and Leonardis, etc.
All of that crap should not be laid at Eric’s doorstep; that’s the situation he inherited. However, Eric will be the first to acknowledge that there’s a lot of room for improvement.
And, we’re working on it. I happen to agree with everyone who emphasizes the importance of coaching; it’s always a key factor .
We have seven regular-season games left; let’s see how they turn out.
@pennies from heaven
You’re a clown. Yes,Temple City is improving. But at what point do you say the coaching has overcome the demographics? A four year varsity player this year has never won more than 3 games a year in his high school career. So if they go 4 and 6 that will be a successful year? It’s still a losing season. My belief is that Temple City will never return to the type of glory they have enjoyed years past and that is directly tied to the changed demographics. Quit using San Marino as an example, they had 1 dream year
A little more clarification on Alhambra’s untapped potential: Nineteen players out of 44 on our roster are seniors; we’ll have a lot of guys coming back next season.
I’ve already mentioned (on another blog thread) the lack of a feeder youth program in Alhambra. The Thunderbirds are no more; they’ve been gone for several years now. The program imploded because of alleged financial malfeasance by the group’s president.
So, now, some of our guys don’t play any tackle football until they join the freshman team. And, a few don’t come out for football until even later.
But, we have some talented players, and the staff is working hard to coach everyone up. For us, it will all be good if we continue to improve.
@Alhambra, don’t let RAMS FAN read you say that. He doesn’t believe coaching makes a difference regardless of the demographics of the school, even though that theory has been proven at another neighboring school, San Marino.
@ron this game goes to show the difference that a coach can have temple city coach has turned them around with good Coaching.
One of the things with Alhambra right now is that we do have potential but that’s it. The Coaching staff hasn’t been able to get the potential out of the kids
@ Anonymous: Dude, relax. I’m not the one who’s prone to rash statements, and I don’t jump to conclusions about people I don’t know. I’d never boast about a three-point win over Temple City. You can find better things to shake your head over.
I’m more relieved than anything else, and the coaching staff feels the same way. We escaped with one tonight. But, it’s a win and we’ll take it.
We strongly believe that our players have a lot of untapped potential, and we’ll work hard to develop it every week.
@MVL: Temple City is substantially improved over last year. And, we’re not bad. However, there are some things we need to fix, including the tackling by our DB’s. The game probably wouldn’t have been as close if we had really played well.
Temple City’s quarterback, Justin Bowman, isn’t that mobile, but he looked good throwing from the pocket. He was 17/28 for 295 yards and four touchdowns, with one interception.
I agree with FridayKnights about the Rams’ coaching. Temple City is a more spirited, harder-hitting team now, and the Rams’ offensive line did a good job in pass protection.
Alhambra’s passing game has improved considerably over the last two weeks. Quarterback Julien Garcia completed nine of 19 passes for 199 yards and two TD’s against Temple City.
In addition, we ran for 99 yards as a team, so that’s also an improvement. But, we can and will do better.
Temple City is improved, immensely! They are better more physical and better coached than last year. Maybe Alhambra is just a good football team. Give them some credit.
Is temple city that improved or is Alhambra that bad that they can’t dominate a team like temple city?