{"id":98432,"date":"2026-09-04T23:14:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=98432"},"modified":"2026-09-05T00:42:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T07:42:03","slug":"nolasco-nudges-dons-pass-bulldogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=98432","title":{"rendered":"Nolasco Nudges Dons Past Bulldogs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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El Rancho runningback Peru Nolasco tallied 125 yards on 13 carries and scored two touchdowns Friday night in the Dons 17-13 win against West Covina. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Alex A. Gonzalez<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West Covina \u2013 In a battle between two different styles of offense, the El Rancho Dons established their running attack against the West Covina Bulldogs, featuring Peru Nolasco and Braylon Morrison, who combined for 187 yards on 26 carries and two touchdowns in their 17-13 win at West Covina High School Friday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u200b\u201cWe did amazing out here,\u201d commented Nolaco postgame. \u201cWe had a couple of mistakes, but we learned from those. I couldn’t have done it without my team. We did absolutely amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bThe Dons were the first to score on the cool night after their defense forced a quick turnover on the Bulldogs’ first play of scrimmage when quarterback Elias Irvin bobbled the snap and kicked the ball into the hands of Andrew Orihuela. The turnover only netted three points when Ace Anaya booted a 37-yard field goal at the 9:37 mark of the first quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bElias and the West Covina offense shook off the early turnover on their ensuing possession, needing only four plays to take a 7-3 lead. On the first play of the drive, Elias dropped back and connected with Moses Gogue, who then took it 51 yards. The two connected again on the final play of the drive when Elias scrambled out of the pocket and threw a dart to Gogue in the corner of the end zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bEl Rancho then used their no-huddle offense on the next series, and Nolasco, Morrison, and Jamie Garcia kept the Bulldogs’ defense guessing as they drove down the field. Unfortunately, once the Dons got into the red zone, the open running lanes closed up and forced them to kick another field goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bAlthough Anaya\u2019s 26-yard attempt was missed with 2:08 remaining in the first quarter, El Rancho picked off Elias on his first pass attempt on the ensuing drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bAfter a slew of punts between both schools, the Dons regained the lead behind Nolasco, who took the handoff at the Bulldog nine-yard line, followed his blockers, and scored in the early minutes of the second quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bEl Rancho took the 10-3 lead into intermission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bFollowing the break, with the first possession of the second half, Nolasco and Co. manufactured a 10-play drive that ended in six with 7:47 remaining in the third quarter. Adrian Lopez connected with Javier Hernandez for a 25-yard gain that helped set up Nolasco for his second touchdown of the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bEven with the struggles that the West Covina offense faced in the third quarter, they kept an arm’s length from the Dons. Then, as the fourth quarter started, the Bulldogs forced another field goal attempt, but this time they blocked the kick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bThe offense then turned around and made it a four-point ballgame with 5:10 left in regulation. On the drive, Elias completed all but one of his six pass attempts for 57 yards, with one of those passes going for a touchdown to Isaiah Rodriguez-Arias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bHowever, on the final drive of the night, the Bulldog defense managed to push the Dons backward, but on fourth and short on the West Covina 40, Garcia took the handoff and bulldozed his way for the one yard, sealing the win for El Rancho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200bWith the win, El Rancho will look to make it 4-0 next week when they host Montebello. West Covina will try to even its record next Friday when they travel to Fairfield to play the Vaden Vikings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alex A. Gonzalez West Covina \u2013 In a battle between two different styles of offense, the El Rancho Dons established their running attack against the West Covina Bulldogs, featuring Peru Nolasco and Braylon Morrison, who combined for 187 yards on 26 carries and two touchdowns in their 17-13 win at West Covina High School […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12816,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hsfootball","category-high-school-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98432","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\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=98432"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98441,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98432\/revisions\/98441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=98432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=98432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=98432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}