{"id":68737,"date":"2020-12-11T11:12:47","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T18:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=68737"},"modified":"2020-12-11T18:51:05","modified_gmt":"2020-12-12T01:51:05","slug":"lions-finish-perfect-season-capture-state-title-32-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=68737","title":{"rendered":"One Year Ago: Lions Finish Perfect Season, Capture State Title 32-7"},"content":{"rendered":"
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El Monte CIF State Division 5 AA Champions<\/p><\/div>\n

“Our One Year Ago” series moves to the final game of the season. Rich Whittington traveled up North to cover his alma mater, El Monte, capture the 5-AA State Championship. The Lions put a bow on a perfect season with a rout of Del Norte in Crescent City on Saturday night December 14, 2019.<\/p>\n

By Rich Whittington<\/p>\n

(Crescent City, CA) – The El Monte Lions completed their quest for a perfect season Saturday evening, running their way to a 16-0 record, and capturing the CIF Division 5-AA State Championship by defeating the host Del Norte Warriors, 32-7, in front of a sellout crowd at Del Norte\u2019s Mike Whalen Field.<\/p>\n

El Monte did what El Monte does best\u2026run, run, run. Davon Booth led the way for the Lions, rushing for 222 yards and four touchdowns. Booth also converted a 2-point PAT attempt. Abel Cueva also got into the scoring game by finding the end zone on a 10- yard TD run. Adding to the Lions running success was Nathan Velasquez, who provided a new wrinkle to El Monte\u2019s already potent offense, by serving as a fullback-type runner.<\/p>\n

Velasquez proved effective on short yardage plays, converting several third down attempts, thereby keep El Monte scoring drives alive and running.<\/p>\n

In addition to their offensive success, the Lions also had a great night on the defensive side of the ball. CB JJ Reyes led the way for the Lion \u201cD\u201d by sacking Del Norte quarterback OJ Calleja for an 8-yard loss, and by recovering a Del Norte fumble. Also getting into the \u201cturnover\u201d game was LB Sergio Gonzalez, who also recovered a Del Norte fumble. The Lions played a stingy, hard hitting brand of defense that could be seen, and heard, from virtually any spot in the stadium.<\/p>\n

Del Norte\u2019s lone score was provided by Levi Cox Cooley, who scored on a 3-yard TD blast. The PAT was successfully converted by K Kenji Adams Lee. This made the score 32-7, with 1:59 remaining in the contest.<\/p>\n

El Monte finished the 2019 season with a 16-0 record, winning the Mission Valley League, CIF Division 12, and California State Division 5AA titles. The Warriors finished the 2019 season with a record of 13-2, capturing the Humboldt-Del Norte-Big 4 League, and CIF North Coast section Division 5 titles.<\/p>\n

Note: A special thanks to the City of Crescent City, the Del Norte County School District, and the Del Norte Warriors for hosting such a great event. The hospitality and sportsmanship that you provided to your visitors was unsurpassed. This was a wonderful experience, and a glowing example of what sports is all about. Again, thank you for such a memorable experience. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Our One Year Ago” series moves to the final game of the season. Rich Whittington traveled up North to cover his alma mater, El Monte, capture the 5-AA State Championship. The Lions put a bow on a perfect season with a rout of Del Norte in Crescent City on Saturday night December 14, 2019. By […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12816,3],"tags":[13339,13336,3626],"class_list":["post-68737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hsfootball","category-high-school-sports","tag-cif-state","tag-del-norte-football","tag-el-monte-football"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68737"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70427,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68737\/revisions\/70427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}