Jacob Buccola led a devastating San Dimas Ground attack
With this year’s football season postponed we will continue to bring you week by week games from the 2019 season. This was a Week One battle from last year with San Dimas hosting Montebello in a good local matchup. The game was played August 30, 2019.
By Tim Peterson
(San Dimas) – It’s a new season but the same old San Dimas. In other words ground and pound, grind it out, chew up yardage and in the end wear down your opponent, which is exactly what the Saints did Friday night in a 33-24 win over Montebello on their home field.
The Oilers were hanging around all night until the Saints finally delivered the knock out blow late in the fourth quarter. San Dimas, leading by just two, put together 14-play 63 yard drive that Jacob Buccola capped with a 15-yard run to ice the game with 3:34 left. The Oilers got the ball back with one last shot but San Dimas shut them down and ran out the clock.
San Dimas had four touchdowns on the ground overall with Buccola picking up two of them. The Saints racked up 327 yards rushing overall. Buccola ran for 108 yards on 15 carries, Arturo Orozco added 87 and Bleau Wallace ran for 62.
San Dimas went 66 yards on 12 plays on its first possession with Buccola going over from the three to go up 7-0.
After Montebello answered with a 31-yard field goal by Andre Nava San Dimas was right back at it. This time the Saints marched 57 yards on seven plays with quarterback Ryan Bulick hitting Billy Hennessey on a 15-yard touchdown pass for a 13-3 advantage.
The momentum shifted on the Saints next possession when Bulick threw a short out pass that was picked off by Gabriel Loaiza at the line of scrimmage who returned it 30 yards to the house for a score and the Oilers were within three.
After Orozco scored on a one-yard run to finish a 54-yard drive for San Dimas, Montebello went 55 yards on six plays with Eduardo Gonzalez scoring on an eight-yard run. San Dimas had the ball on the Montebello five-yard line when time ran out on the first half with the Saints up 20-17.
After Bulick found the end zone on a two-yard run in the third quarter for the Saints, the Oilers made it interesting in the fourth. Gonzalez picked up his second TD of the night on a 13-yard scamper to cap a 91-yard drive to cut it to 26-24 with 11:00 remaining.
The Saints then got the ball back and embarked on their time consuming game wining drive to clinch it. The Oilers got the ball back but the San Dimas D forced them into a three and out.
Andre Maldonado completed five passes for 74 yards and Elijah Martinez had three catches for 65 but the Oilers didn’t have any stats that jumped off of the scoresheet. They turned the ball over three times.
San Dimas coughed it up twice themselves but with over 300 yards rushing the Saints overcame the miscues.
The Saints are now 1-0 with the season opening victory while the Oilers dropped to 0-2.
49-14. That was the combined record of the 5 non-league teams the Oilers played in 2019. 45-16 was the average score in the 5 losses. I felt that type of scheduling was silly. For this January they got smart and scheduled 3 non-league teams against teams they can beat with ER and San Dimas staying on the schedule to test them. No sense in getting your team pounded week after week unless you are sure you have the goods.
That only counts in horse shoes
Game was closer than score indicates.
Whew Saints! Good job grinding it out