Elias Har scored the only touchdown for Rio Hondo Prep late in the fourth quarter. (Photo by Duane Barker).
By Tim Peterson
(Mission Viejo) – Rio Hondo Prep fell behind 14-3 halftime and could never bounce back in a 35-10 loss to Sonora Saturday in the CIF Division 2A Final at Saddleback College.
Already down by 11 Sonora opened it up in the third quarter scoring on two drives to make it 28-3 heading into the fourth. The Wildcats coasted from there.
Sonora drove 53 yards on seven plays on the first possession of the third. Tommy Sutton bulled in from the one-yard line to make it 21-3.
On the next possession, Steven Moorfoot intercepted Rio Hondo Prep’s Yanick Diaz and Sonora was in business again at the Rio Hondo Prep 39. The Cats took advantage quickly finding the endzone seven plays later on another Sutton blast-again from a yard out. It was 28-3 with 1:34 left in the third quarter and although the fat lady wasn’t singing yet she could be seen warming up on the far sideline.
In the fourth quarter the Wildcats added another score. After the Kares were stopped at their own 25-yard line Sonora used the short field for its final touchdown. Sutton capped the scoring with a 10-yard run- his third touchdown of the day.
Sonora got on the board first on its first possession. After Rio Hondo Prep punted on its first series the Wildcats marched 70 yards with Cash Byington scoring on an eight-yard run.
Rio Hondo Prep answered with a march down to the Sonora 10-yard line but the drive stalled there and Easton Jara booted a 27-yard field goal.
Sonora went up 14-3 with just over two minutes left in the second quarter when Brody Speer (cool name) got loose for a 67-yard touchdown run.
The Wildcats then took that lead into the second half, broke it open in the third quarter and went on to the victory.
The Kare did offer a murmur of protest late in the game when Diaz hit Elias Har for a 46-yard score for the final tally.
Rio Hondo Prep was held to 115 yards rushing with Christian Lee leading the way with 54 carries and Nathaniel Shine had 38 yards on seven tries. Noah Penunuri, who wasn’t 100 percent coming into the game, injured his ankle in the first half and finished with 12 yards on six carries. Diaz threw for 184 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions. Sonora’s Morfoot had both interceptions.
For Sonora Speer rushed for 118 yards and a touchdown on seven carries and Byington ran eight times for 93 yards and a score. Sutton scored three times and ran for 40 yards overall. Sonora racked up 310 yards on the ground. Quarterback Eli Ingalls ran for 59 on 14 attempts.
The Kares ended the season with an overall record of 15-1 and a CIF Division 5 Title under its belt. For Sonora it was its second straight State Championship and the Wildcats competed the season with a perfect record of 15-0.
S 7 7 14 7 35
R 3 0 0 7 10
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The RHP-Sonora game was played in Mission Viejo. The big kids from the gold mining town should have simply played Mission Viejo! Balboa was way over the heads of SEM as well. Hard to believe this all happened by chance.
@ EM: I’m sure it was. I’ll bet your game was played on that Saturday in October which happened to be the day after a freak lightning storm caused the suspension of several Friday night games in the West San Gabriel Valley.
Most of the suspended games were completed the next day, although Alhambra’s home game against San Gabriel wasn’t resumed until the following Monday night. We did win, though, despite the additional two-day wait.
I really thought Rio Hondo Prep was going to join the 2023 La Serna team as the only other Mid Valley coverage area team to elevate its play enough to win a State Title in one of the top 4 or 5 divisions since they went to this playoff system in 2016, but it was not to be.
It looked like they were ready to take the next step, like LS 2 years ago, so it was pretty surprising to see RHP to fail to win state (especially getting blown out) with the way they had been rolling people all playoffs, including LS. Nevertheless, congrats on a great year to RHP.
From T. Peterson: If you would have seen Sonora you wouldn’t have been surprised.
Since they went to this ratings system in 2016, the Southern Section is 27-38 in State Championship games. If you take out the Open division, where the SS is 9-0, then the SS record is a terrible 18-38. Throw in the LA City section and it’s like 19-45 or close to it minus the open division wins.
I have no idea if they are, but if I had to bet, my money would be on the ratings guys being based in Northern California.
Just my hunch based on the Southern Section going 18-38 in State finals games, not counting the Open Division games since 2016.
A high % of the losses being blowouts.
Seems like some serious sandbagging going on for the NorCal teams.
In 2018 when EM beat Arroyo. That was a fun day game!
In the very top division of the state championships, #5 Santa Margarita beat #15 De LaSalle 47-13. This win, coupled with the way the south OC team has been playing this last month, might be enough to snag a national championship. I’ve heard the pollsters are stymied on whether to vote Santa Margarita or Pioneer as the new champs, chewing over how that fake punt should figure into the merits of Juarez’s unit. Again, I caution our friend ‘Rise of the Titans’ to not purchase championship rings ahead of time.
A day game! Let’s have more varsity day games!
I know that they can be problematic on school days, but at least have some on Saturdays. Day games are a lot of fun, in my opinion, and I believe that Saturday afternoon games would draw good crowds, too.
I believe that Sonora team could play toe-to-toe with teams such as Mission Viejo and Servite, and today’s result is what we’d have if RHP were to play those OC powers. CIF State needs to reconsider and reconfigure its matchups, because this one wasn’t in the ballpark of competitive equity.
Sure, let’s congratulate Sonora…go home and mine for gold, but know this game was obviously a mismatch, something that leaves a big question mark on the veracity of the state selection people.