East QB (Diamond Ranch) Gus Viramontes
(Baldwin Park) – It took a half before the East warmed up. But they turned up the heat in the second half and routed the West 40-0 in the 31st Annual Hall of Fame Game Friday night at Baldwin Park High School.
“I think we really figured out how to play football in the second half,” said East Coach Mike Maggiore. “It took us awhile to get our feet wet but when we did we really played well.”
In the first half, the East lost the ball on a fumble, had a pass intercepted and punted three times. They did mange to score early in the second quarter on a ten yard run by Deron Holmes of Bonita. The East marched 92 yards in ten plays to take a 7-0 lead.
The West tuned the ball over once in the first half when Jerone Cox intercepted Rocky Moore. They also kicked it away three times and went into halftime down seven. Then the wheels came off.
After the West went three and out to open the second half, The East put together a ten play, 84 yard drive. Gus Viramontes of Diamond Ranch capped it with a 14 yard touchdown strike to Geoffrey Vaughns of South Hills.
West HC Keith Jones X-ing & O-ing
On the next possession, Viramontes and Vaughns connected again- this time on a 53 yard catch and carry with 5:25 left in the third quarter.
Meanwhile the West offense did not get a first down on its first three possessions of the second half.
If the West did have a glimmer of hope the East shut it down early in the fourth quarter when Darrien Johnson of Bishop Amat hauled in a 14 yard touchdown pass from Viramontes.
Charter Oak’s Leon Youngblood caught a tipped pass for an interception of a Moore pass and turned it into a 34 yard touchdown late in the fourth.
For good measure San Dimas’ Tre Evans broke several tackles and outran the West secondary for a 45 yard sprint to the goal line with just over a minute remaining in the game as the East hit the 40 mark.
Viramontes threw for 145 yards and three touchdowns to earn MVP honors. A.J. Powell of Charter Oak caught 5 passes for 77 yards and Vaughns had 3 receptions for 85 yards and two scores.
The West had trouble moving the ball on the ground or through the air. San Gabriel’s Isaac Valdez, Moore of La Canada and Darrian Cazarin of Alhambra all saw time at quarterback with Moore getting the bulk of the action. But none of them had much success.
Schurr’s Carlos Arredondo did catch three passes for 43 yards including one good for 23 yards in the second half.
“With the athletes that we had from schools like Bishop Amat, Charter Oak and Diamond Ranch, I figured we would be pretty good,” Maggiore said.
On Friday night good was an understatement for the way the East performed on both sides of the ball.
E 0 7 13 20 40
W 0 0 0 0 0
BP's Joseph Duran lobbying for tips in the parking lot.
Summary:
1st Qtr:
E 9:19 Holmes 10 yd run (Ernesto Martin Kick)
3rd Qtr:
E 8:25 Vaughns 14 yd pass from Viramontes (Kick Failed)
E 5:25 Vaughns 53 yd pass from Viramontes (Martin Kick)
4th Qtr:
E 10:37 Johnson 14 yd pass from Viramontes (Martin Kick)
E 8: 47 Youngblood 34 yd Int. Ret. (Martin Kick)
E 1:26 Evans 45 yd run (Kick Blocked)
Leave a Reply