Dons Hang Around; Earn Trip to Semis

El Rancho Beats Knight: 56-52

By Rich Whittington

(Pico Rivera) The El Rancho Dons and the Knight Hawks combined for a total of 1,173 yards of offense and 108 total points, Friday evening. In the end, host
El Rancho came from behind and earned a spot in the CIF Division Semi-Finals, beating Knight 56-52, at Dons Memorial Stadium.

The Hawks opened the evening’s festivities with a bit of trickery; attempting an on-side kick on the game’s opening kickoff. The play worked. Knight recovered the ball, turning the gamble into the game’s first score…a 33 yard field goal Alvaro Gomez. This proved to be the beginning of the Hawks’ 52 point scoring barrage. In addition to the aforementioned field goal, Junior quarterback John Olujich connected on five touchdown passes, finding his favorite target, Christian Roland-Wallace, on tosses of 17, 36, 74, and 75 yards. Additionally, Olujich connected with running back Jalen Williams for a 56 yard catch and run. Also adding to the Hawks scoring total was
Demetrius Freeman, who connected with Roland-Wallace for a 56 yard score and Kevion Harris, who ran for an 85 yard score.

El Rancho played “under the radar” for the majority of the game. While Knight made their presence known with big plays, El Rancho utilized sustained drives and patience to announce their attendance. The Dons played from behind virtually all evening, establishing their first lead of the game with 4:49 remaining in the contest. El Rancho quarterback Jakob Moeller led the way for the Dons, completing 9 of 16 passes for 112 yards. This included a 10 yard scoring pass to Oscar Mendez. Moeller did the majority of his damage on the ground, however, rushing for 252 yards on 23 carries, including touchdown runs of 1, 11, and 15 yards. Also finding the end zone for the Dons were Roman Rosas, who scored on a pair of one yard runs, Richie Amaya, who also scored on a one yard TD blast, and Alex Bermudez, who scored on a 13 yard jaunt.

El Rancho (9-3, 3-1 in Del Rio League Play) advances to the CIF Division 10 Semi-Finals, where they will host the Eisenhower Eagles next Friday. Game time is to be announced. Knight finishes the 2018 football season with an overall record of 9-3, 6-1 in Golden League play.

3 Comments to "Dons Hang Around; Earn Trip to Semis"

  1. Don Quixote's Gravatar Don Quixote
    November 13, 2018 - 10:16 pm | Permalink

    I have seen and coached hundreds of high school football games. Last Friday’s was maybe the best. The Don’s were thoroughly beaten on 3 different occasions. Trailing at the half by 17 to a dominate team I got my wife up and said lets go it’s over. She convinced me to stay. El Rancho held to start the 3rd and scored. Knight answered back in seconds and ER was knocked down again down by 17, time to go home again. But down the field the Dons came . 5 to 8 yards at a time. I could tell The Knight team was getting frustrated at these guys and by the fourth quarter still up by 10 you could see the bigger faster Knight team starting to tire. And El Rancho seemed to be getting stronger and bigger. It was an amazing game. A classic. A truly formidable opponent was essential to make this game one that will be remembered forever. Congratulations to Knight and El Rancho. No reality TV, epic movie or even Disneyland could come close to equaling Friday night last.

  2. Football Dude's Gravatar Football Dude
    November 10, 2018 - 5:54 pm | Permalink

    What tremendous game. Congrats El Rancho. On to the semifinals.

  3. ER's Gravatar ER
    November 10, 2018 - 1:03 pm | Permalink

    Game of the year, whoever missed this one missed an absolutely crazy game.

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