One Year Ago: The D Shows Up at the Ranch, 21-14

The Diamond Ranch D stuck it to Los Altos all night.

One more from Week 7 in our “One Year Ago” series. The Diamond Ranch D showed up to get the W against Los Altos. Tim Peterson covered the action on October 11, 2019. 

By Tim Peterson

(Pomona) – The Diamond Ranch defense shut out Los Altos in the second half and the Panthers rallied to beat the visiting Conquerors 21-14 Friday night in a Hacienda League contest. 

The Panthers were down 14-7 at the half but scored once in the third quarter and once in the fourth to take the lead. After forcing Los Altos to punt with four minutes left Diamond Ranch chewed up rest the clock to put it away.

Tied at 14 in the fourth quarter the Diamond Ranch defense made a play to set up what proved to be the game winning score. Los Altos quarterback David Hacegaba’s pass was tipped and scooped out of the air by middle linebacker Elijah Schimer at the Conqueror 39. four plays later Cade Miller connected with Andrew Martinez for a 23-yard touchdown strike over the middle to make it 21-14 with 6:42 left.

The Panthers then stopped Los Altos, got the ball back and never gave it up.

It was the Los Altos defense that made some noise early for the first score of the game. On the Panthers second possession they coughed up the football, and Benjamin Aguilar scooped it up and rumbled 30 yards for the score.

Cade Miller threw two touchdown passes for the Panthers.

It was still 7-0 late in the second quarter when Diamond Ranch finally got on the board. Hunter Clark capped a 45-yard drive with a six-yard run to even it up.

Los Altos immediately responded on the ensuing kickoff with a little trickery. Zecheriah Rodriguez fielded the punt, and then threw the ball across the field to Rene Zaldivar. Zaldivar caught the toss, broke a couple of tackles and went 80 yards for a touchdown to put the Conqs back on top 14-7 with 1:33 left in the half.

Los Altos took that lead into the break.

Diamond Ranch tied it with just over five minutes left in the third when Cade Miller hit Luis Guerrero in stride down the right sideline for a 58 yard touchdown. Guerrero ran right by the Los Altos secondary.

In the fourth D Ranch converted the Los Altos turnover into six points and ultimately the victory.
Miller ran for 58 yards and threw for 91 yards and two touchdowns. Clark had 16 carries for 111 yards and a score.

The defense was the big story however for the Panthers as they held Los Altos out of the endzone as the Conquerors only scores came on a return of a fumble recovery and a kick off return. Diamond Ranch held Los Altos to just 109 total yards.

With the victory Diamond Ranch impoved to 4-3 on the year and 2-0 in the Hacienda. Los Altos fell to 5-2 and 1-1.

LA  7  7 0 0    14

DR 0  7  7 7    21

3 Comments to "One Year Ago: The D Shows Up at the Ranch, 21-14"

  1. SoCal's Gravatar SoCal
    October 14, 2019 - 9:14 pm | Permalink

    The old adage, “when you have two QB’s you have none.” C’mom already stick to the kid from Northview, he is obviously the best QB. The other QB dad or something must be part of the powers to be. Something doesn’t feel right or the head coach is that dumb.

  2. Waldo Rojas's Gravatar Waldo Rojas
    October 14, 2019 - 7:57 pm | Permalink

    Yes, the offensive coaches were definitely out-coached by DR. Not only that, the LA offense seemed out of sync and couldn’t execute anything all night. Their QB situation seems out of wack too. Every other series there was a different QB trying to run the offense. It just didn’t make any sense. To make matters worse, they decided to take a penalty on 3rd and long instead of declining to make it 4th down and 14, forcing DR to punt. Next play, touchdown on a deep route to the sideline. Unacceptable. The players played hard. This loss is on the coaches.

  3. LA's Gravatar LA
    October 14, 2019 - 5:59 am | Permalink

    How can we total only 109 yards of offense with all these offensive weapons. Is our OC that bad or is D Ranch defense that good?

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