By Duane Barker
(Irwindale, CA) The Rio Hondo Kares and the Viewpoint Patriots met in both teams first Gold Coast League opener and the Kares won in dominant fashion 54-19 at Francis E. Ostergard Stadium at Kares Park Friday night.
13 different Kares carried the ball on the evening with six of those 13 finding paydirt.
The Kares won the toss and elected to receive the ball to start the second half putting their defense on the field to set the tone.
The Patriots got a first down on their first play from scrimmage but that was all they got and were forced to punt on their fifth play.
Rio Hondo Prep got their first series started at their own 24 and it wouldn’t take long for the Kares to light up the scoreboard. Nathaniel Curtis got the ball on the end around, turned the corner and was gone to glory. One play and 76-yards later Rio Hondo was up 7-0
Disaster struck for Viewpoint on their next series. Forced to punt deep in their own end, the snap flew over the punter’s head and out of the back of the endzone for a safety. With 7:19 left in the opening quarter the Kares were up 9-0.
Later on in the first a five play drive by the Kares stalled and Marco Chan came on to boot through a 24-yard field goal.
The Kares closed out the first half with three more touchdowns by Noah Penunuri, Yarick Diaz and Joshua Curtis.
On the other side the Patriots got on the board with 3:17 left in the half on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Magnus Merriman to Darren Haggerty. Merriman came on in relief of starter Logan Price.
On the ensuing kickoff, Kare returner Elias Har was hit and coughed up the ball at the Rio Hondo 38 yard line. The ball was recovered by Viewpoint, setting the Patriots up with good field position.
Three plays later Merriman found Haggerty again this time from 28 yards away.
The second half was more of the same for the Kares. Penunuri struck again on a 60-yard run and younger players like Brendan Yokohama and Devin Gomez getting in on the action each scoring a touchdown of their own.
The last score for the Patriots came on the ensuing kickoff after the Yokohama touchdown.
Kenyon Ebole-Gordon fielded the kick off at this own seven and worked his way through the Kare coverage team, got to the edge and was off to the races for 97-yards to the house.
With the win the Kares improve to 7-1 and can close out the Gold Coast League title with a win next week at home over Brentwood.
Viewpoint will take on River Island next week in a non-league contest before finishing up at home against Brentwood on November 1st.
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