By George Hernandez
(Covina)- Rio Hondo Prep a school of 90 students got its biggest 11-man football win with a 37-30 victory over Charter Oak who has around 1300 students, Friday night at Lou Farrar Field.
The Chargers got the ball to start the game and was forced to punt.
The Kares went on a seven minute march up the field and running back Jonathan Guerrero capped it off with a 7-yard touchdown, a two point conversion made it 8-0.
Charter Oak answered two minutes later when Vincent Farrar hit a open Zakkarii Black who took it 37-yards to paydirt to make it 8-7.
Rio Hondo Prep’s Gio Ortega didn’t waste any time scoring taking the kickoff 95-yards making it 15-7.
Chargers would punt again, but their defense would go to work forcing a punt. A bad snap over the head of the kicker out of the back of the end zone gave Charter Oak a safety.
Charter Oak then scored again taking a 16-15 lead when Sam Mason juked a few defenders and took it 36-yards to the house.
The Kares didn’t let that last long as they pounded the ball up the field and Guerrero took it in from just inches out making it 23-16.
The two teams exchanged punts going into halftime.
Rio Hondo Prep added to their lead early in the second half on its second play as Damyan Diaz found a wide open Ryan McCulloch who sprinted into the field end zone from 58-yards out.
The Chargers run game finally broke a big one when Black shifted through the defense and scored a 55-yard touchdown at 11:04 in the third quarter.
The Kares ate up eight minutes of the clock and scored on another run by Guerrero his third of the night making it 37-23 at 2:59 left in the third.
Charter Oak had a turnover on downs and Rio Hondo Prep punted on its next drive.
The Chargers cut into the lead again early in the fourth quarter when Black scored on another 55-yard run putting the score at 37-30.
The Kares ran another eight minutes of the clock but turned the ball over on downs with just over two minutes to play.
Charter Oak’s last shot was picked off on fourth and five by Diaz who could of scored but went to the one yard line and took a knee.
Rio Hondo Prep ran out the clock and knocked the Chargers out the playoffs.
The Kares move on in the Division 7 playoffs and face 9-2 St. Pius X next week.
Loading ...
This is such an impressive victory for the Kares. Charter Oak represented an extremely formidable opponent for Rio Hondo Prep, especially for being a small school, regardless of its private status.
#RESPECT
I don’t care if CO was playing their 2nd string all game, this is an embarrassing loss for them. Hats off to RHP.
Because the boys that go to Rio are almost all athletes that have been in the Kare youth programs and these bigger schools have a bunch of players that have no experience before high school. Thats exactly why Rio was able to win this game. Next up is another small school for them.
As for Pasadena and Muir. Anyone who knows HS football knows Pasadena is the better team and thats why they are a division higher than Muir.
@ HMMMMM,
Again, I stick to my original post asking how it makes any logical sense to place a team like Rio in a division with teams that have more boys on their teams than Rio Hondo has in its entire school. Muir who was co-league Champs with Pasadena was placed in a lower division.
I wonder if that one guy is going to come back and complain about the divisions not being fair because of this matchup..
Never thought I’d see the day Rio would have the blowout wins over teams like Temple City and Arcadia in recent years. But for them to beat Charter Oak in the playoffs no less is absolutely unreal how times have changed in the last decade.
Good for the Kares. Nice surprise.
Hard to ignore Rio now, MVS.