Los Altos quarterback Luke Rodriguez was a threat on the ground and through the air.
By Tim Peterson
(Hacienda Heights) – Nicholas Castillo picked off a pass with 1:17 left to lift Los Altos to a 21-18 win over El Rancho Friday night at Los Altos.
The Conquerors defense also stopped the Dons on the previous series when El Rancho had the ball at the one-yard line. But a penalty and a sack pushed El Rancho back to the 20-yard line where a 37-yard field goal was missed with 2:52 remaining.
Los Altos went three and out on the next series and was forced to punt the ball back to El Rancho. But Castillo’s pick of an Adrian Lopez pass sealed it for the Conquerors.
“Guts man, guts!” said Los Altos head coach Dale Ziola about his defense. “We talk about grit all the time and about how hard it is to play this game when the other team is trying to win just as hard as you are. Tonight was it. They rose up at the right time and I’m super proud of them.”
El Rancho scored on its first drive of the game chewing up nearly six minutes off the clock. The Dons pieced together a 14-play, 80-yard drive capped by a seven-yard pass from Lopez to Andres Centeno.
El Rancho’s Adrian Lopez threw a pair of touchdown passes but the Dons came up short.
While El Rancho scored on a long, time consuming march Los Altos hit pay dirt with a lightning bolt. On the ensuing kickoff Nathaniel Sanchez fielded the ball and raced 86 yards to the promised land and just like that it was tied at seven.
The Dons went on another drive in the second quarter moving the ball all the way down to the Los Altos 20 before being stopped on third down. Ace Anaya booted a 36-yard field goal to give El Rancho a 10-7 lead.
Again the Conquerors used a big play to strike back. Luke Rodriguez connected with Benjamin Cortez and he outran the El Rancho secondary for a 55-yard score with just 55 seconds left in the second quarter for a 14-10 lead. The Conqs took that advantage into halftime.
In the third quarter it was Los Altos who methodically matriculated down the field. The Conquerors used 12 plays to go 47 yards. Rodriguez kept it and went three yards for the touchdown.
Three minutes later El Rancho answered with a quick score. Braylon Morrison hauled in a six-yard pass from Lopez and scooted into the end zone to cut the lead to 21-16 to cap an eight-play drive. AJ Young bulled his way in for the two-point conversion to cut the lead to three.
The Los Altos defense then came up with the two big stops late in the fourth quarter to secure the victory.
“We knew we would be in for a dogfight. El Rancho is so well-coached and they have scrappy kids and there’s so much pride in that community,” Ziola said.
With the victory the Conquerors remained unbeaten improving to 5-0 while El Rancho fell to 4-2. The Conquerors will host West Covina next week while the Dons area also at home against South El Monte.
ER 7 8 8 0 18
LA 7 7 7 0 21
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In 2025 CIF Southern Section teams ranked 62-81 were D5 teams. Right now Los Altos is ranked #81 in the Southern Section which would most likely have them in D5 as of today, an El Rancho victory over La Mirada and Los Altos would’ve had them ranked higher than #81 which would’ve put them squarely in D5. You may not think so, but that is the playoff system. I do not think it would’ve been good for El Rancho at all. El Rancho now sits at #121 which would put them as one of the top teams in Division 8, if El Rancho continues to win they would almost certainly end up in D7.
i disagree with you “Area’ that ER would ever be moved up to D5
El Rancho was 1 yard away from winning that game. Idk about the “clearly” better part, marginally yes. LA easily has the better special teams though, not sure what is going on with special teams at El Rancho, but constantly giving up big returns, a kickoff return for a TD after going up 7-0, a missed field goal… last week a missed PAT, they need to get that fixed.
I believe that El Rancho is currently in Div 11 while Los Altos was in Div 6 last year. It was a great game on Friday. Los Altos was clearly the better team but El Rancho played tough. El Rancho’s past 2 weeks were against were the tough part of their schedule. I am surprised that the are currently at 4 and 2. I didn’t think they would beat South Hills or West Covina. Hats off to them.
This is about as good of a result El Rancho could’ve hoped for. As of now El Rancho probably sits solidly in D8-D7. Winning these last 2 weeks probably would’ve put them in D6 maybe even D5.