By Ron Vrooman
(Alhambra) – Temple City quarterback Jake Jones threw four touchdown passes, and the visiting Rams converted three Alhambra turnovers into scores in a 41-23 victory over the Moors last Friday night.
The Rams built a 34-10 halftime lead on three TD throws from Jones to slot receiver Judah Douglas, a fumble recovery in the end zone by Daniel Deharo, and a 99-yard interception return by Jadon Griffin.
However, Alhambra scored twice in the fourth quarter to make the game interesting. After Bryan Leonard’s 33-yard pass to wide receiver Brandon Kelly made the score 34-23, Anthony Rosales recovered an onside kick by Emilio Reynoso to give the Moors the ball again at their own 45 with five minutes left.
But on the next play, Adan Duenas Fregoso fumbled and the Rams recovered at the Alhambra 43. Five plays later, on 4th-and-goal, Jones hit Gregory Hidalgo with a three-yard TD pass for Temple City’s final score.
Jones, a senior, completed 11 of 19 throws for 228 yards; his favorite receiver was Douglas, who made seven catches for 175 yards and the three first-half touchdowns.
The Rams rushed for only 31 yards as a team on a total of 13 carries.
Leonard, Alhambra’s sophomore quarterback, connected on 16 of 32 passes for 162 yards and a score, but he was intercepted three times.
The Moors’ ground game got a big boost from Duenas Fregoso and Matthew Gandarilla, each of whom made his first start at the running back position. Duenas Fregoso, a senior, carried the ball 26 times for 123 yards and a touchdown, while Gandarilla rushed 14 times for 57 yards.
Duenas Fregoso and Gandarilla were pressed into service after running backs Julian Venegas Khavari and Halen Tsang were injured against Wilson a week earlier.
Alhambra gained 325 yards from scrimmage, compared to 259 yards for Temple City. But, turnovers proved to be decisive; the Moors gave the ball away five times while the Rams committed only two miscues.
The nonleague victory improved Temple City’s record to 2-0 on the season, and the Moors are now 0-3.
Loved the article Ron. I’ve appreciated your years of contributions and comments; you help keep the spirit of Friday night lights alive! (TP too, but he wasn’t getting hate here)
@ Anonymous: It’s nice to know that you care. However, the fact of the matter is that I’ve never dodged anyone on this site. My simple and honest explanation is that I’ve been quite busy the last several days.
Besides filing a weekly story with Tim for this website, I also post Alhambra’s stats on MaxPreps, E-mail a statistical report to the coaches, and produce a weekly in-house football newsletter for AHS. (I finished that early this afternoon.)
In addition, I try to fit in all the normal stuff like work, household chores, and gardening; none of that disappears just because it’s football season. I enjoy talking with you guys, but I can’t always drop everything else to do it right away.
The mistakes on Friday night killed us, and the fact that both of our starting safeties were out with injuries didn’t help our pass defense one bit.
On the plus side, our guys rallied and pulled to within 11 points of the Rams with just over five minutes left in the game. But, fumbling the ball away right after recovering the onside kick proved to be the last straw.
We ran the ball pretty well for the first time this season, which is a hopeful sign. We have a lot of underclassmen on this squad, as well as some seniors who don’t have a lot of varsity playing time, so it’s on-the-job training all over again, like in 2021.
We’re at a crossroads now: We can either continue this losing trend, or we can turn the season around with a decent showing in league and perhaps score a playoff berth. A win against La Salle would be a start in the right direction.
Where you at Ron??