Noah Penunuri ran for 186 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Kares into the Division 5 Semi-Finals.
By Tim Peterson
(El Monte) – Noah Penunuri ran for 186 yards and four touchdowns to lead Rio Hondo Prep to a convincing 28-0 shutout of Troy Friday night at Arroyo High School in the second round of the CIF Division 5 playoffs.
Penunuri scored three times in the first quarter as the Kares jumped out to a 21-0 lead on a rainy night and coasted from there. The Kares marched down the field on the opening possession. Penunuri capped the march with a five-yard run and with just three minutes gone in the game it was 7-0.
On Troy’s first possession Elias Har intercepted Troy quarterback Mason Mays and the Kares were in business again. A couple of plays later Penunuri broke a couple tackles and broke loose for a 38-yard touchdown scamper and it was 14-0 before everybody had opened their umbrellas.
After a Troy punt it was the same thing on the next Rio Hondo possession. Penunuri, who else? got loose and was on the run again. This time he crossed the goal line from 58 yards out and with 2:30 still left in the first quarter it was 21-0 Kares.
Troy did manage to drive down to the Rio Hondo Prep two-yard line in the second quarter but a fumble pushed the Warriors back to the 13-yard line. Troy went for it on fourth down from the 13 but Mays’ pass fell incomplete and the Kares stopped the threat.
Rio Hondo Prep took the 21-0 lead into the half.
The Kares controlled the ball in the third quarter on offense and continued to hold Troy out of the endzone.
Rio Hondo Prep added one more score in the fourth quarter when Penunuri picked up his fourth score of the night on a one-yard plunge.
The Kares maintained the shutout the rest of the way. Rio Hondo Prep had 296 total yards rushing as Nathaniel Shine ran for 74 and Christian Lee added 53. The Kares threw the ball only two times in the contest.
Rio Hondo Prep will face La Serna next Friday night at Arroyo in the Division 5 Semi-Finals. The Lancers were 10-7 winners over Aliso Niguel.
TR 0 0 0 0 0
RH 21 0 0 7 28
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@Maverick
Sorry, but your HC AG doesn’t have the stones to install discipline in his team like the RHP program does. It’s why they lost and will continue to lose big games like this in the future.
Wasn’t feeling real good about La Serna’s chances vs this excellent team, Rio Hondo Prep. But then I saw Tim picked RHP to win by 7, and after seeing his picks last week, I feel much better about LS’s chances now.
Haha, actually you were decent on your picks last week Tim, picked more right than wrong I believe.
I believe you are thinking of the HS La Verne Lutheran. Former U.of Arizona guard Eric Cooper was the coach, I believe, at least in the beginning.
Good for you. I think you got it wrong, you were the one criticising my comments on LS’s football history.
If you read my first post, I complimented your team on their achievements and said I have nothing but respect for the progress you’ve made. Some see Rio as the underdog, but I view this matchup differently. I see two well coached, evenly matched teams, the offensive running game favors Rio, while the defense favors LS. If it’s a rainy game, that may give you an edge, and playing at home certainly helps, you’ve built a team to be proud of, just like we are proud of ours.
This is a tough matchup for LS, no doubt. But we’ve been here before, and we know what it takes to compete at the highest level. Your team is strong, disciplined, and deserves all the credit it gets, but I have full confidence in my team and what we bring to the field. Friday night will show just how hard both sides have worked, and I’m excited to see it play out.
I support RHP, and the team’s championships are the things of legend. Cutting to the chase, LS and RHP both use top talent from a wide area, with the Kares doing the deed better than the Lancers. That’s the cause of your consternation, and the reason for your loss of control in having a civil discussion. I wish you the best in getting yourself calmed down and resigned to the fact of a probable loss on Friday.
Apparently, I don’t have to give you guys a history lesson on LS football because we’re already living rent free in your head. I was just wondering what teams you even support and when was the last time they won a CIF football championship? Maybe 30 years ago? Or ever even sniffed one? I’d look it up for you, but I’m not sure the records go back that far.
I’ll wait…
It cracks me up watching you guys get all worked up every time I type a sentence, like you’re sitting there hovering over the refresh button wondering what Maverick is going to drop next. Maybe we should have LSJuggernaut jump on this blog, because if you’re already rattled now, wait until he shows up. At that point, you might as well call a timeout, file a protest, and start blaming the refs in advance.
Reading Maverick’s latest post, I was confused. Norwalk? I had to dust off the cobwebs of my memory to realize the man was rehashing events of around 13 ago. Has CIF cleared those past players to suit-up for this week’s game? I agree that the defense of the Palmer era was stout, but I can’t see how they are going to affect anything going on at Arroyo this Friday.
To remind everyone, it was a very fortuitous run-back of a botched field goal attempt that downed Penny and Cineceros that night. Outside of that big break, the play of star QB Palmer was more responsible for the win than anything done by Beltrans’s defense. But hey, I welcome the return of that defensive unit, because they’re probably out of shape and ripe to get rolled by Carson’s kids.
This warping of time and space by Maverick, in an effort to join LS’s past players with the present is another symptom of his denial of reality, which is that Andy George’s squad is cruising for a bruising. I have to sign-off now, because my tears of sympathy need wiping.
9 CIF titles and that’s the truth Ruth. Good luck to both team.
What are you smoking? La Serna is not the underdog here, I know you guys are going to preach all week long to your kids that they are the underdog and have no shot bla bla..
You guys are hilarious, lol.
I’m not making excuses for LS at all, we haven’t even played the game yet. I was simply responding to a blogger’s comment about school size and LS’s roster. If you actually understood how private vs public high school football works, you’d get why that matters. I don’t need to explain anything else.
And it’s funny how everyone suddenly forgot that people said the exact same thing before the Norwalk game, LS has no chance, Look at Norwalks huge O-line, They’ve got a D-1 back in Rashaad Penny, LS won’t be able to stop him.
Well… we all saw how that turned out.
Yes, this matchup is different. But just like with Norwalk, Rio’s strength is the running game. If the weather gets nasty, sure, that helps them. But don’t act like LS doesn’t have a shot. If we can control the running game, we’re right in it.
Looking on the cifss website RHP has zero transfers in whole school one, so everybody argument is weak at best!
Reading between the lines in Maverick’s post, the man is already making excuses for the upcoming loss. Poor La Serna, unable to get the transfers, having to make do with scrawny “homegrown” talent. It just isn’t fair. I’m going to keep a towel next to my computer because his posts can really get the old tear ducts going.
Transfer here and there from Amat, St Paul, Etiwanda, Summit, plus plus all the best kids from Whittier, Pioneer, Cal Hi, Santa Fe, parts of Norwalk, La Habra brea, hacienda heights and La puente.
MAV has a point. The schools name escapes me but there was a tiny private in La Verne that corraled a load of basketball talent and dominated for several years some 2o years ago. They clobbered everyone. They eventually fizzled out. Maybe someone can remember the schools name. Time will tell if RP will do the same. If the coach leaves so will the football program and return to 8 man.
When a private school has elite coaching, a winning culture, and far fewer restrictions than public schools on transfers and enrollment boundaries, it naturally pulls talent from everywhere, Rio fits that model. A school with a little over 100 students shouldn’t be able to dominate a large public programs, yet they do because they can bring in top tier talent and plug it into a well coached system. That’s not a knock, it’s just the reality of private school football.
LS, on the other hand, relies mostly on homegrown kids. They’ll get a transfer here and there, and while this year’s team is solid, it’s tough to match the strength of the 2023 group with Long, Alcaraz, Castro, and Ceron, a unit that produced one of the most dynamic rushing attacks in program history.
To beat Rio, LS has one job: slow down their running game and that’s not easy. Noah Penunuri is a physical back who can take over a game. LS’s defense will need discipline, strong tackling and solid edge control to stay in it.
Coach George and the staff will have our young men ready.
This Penunuri kid doesn’t look like a big old monster in the picture above, but he sure runs like one
RHP will shut down LS
LS has been squeaking by their opponents, scoring only 17 points in their two playoff games. I guarantee the LS defense will not put the clamps on RHP’s offense the way they did Lakewood and AV. To prepare for this one, you guys need to go beyond the front of the classroom; you need to get your faces planted on the chalk board while Hernandez anoints you with holy water.
Robledo claiming both the best coaching staffs in the area, not even close, RHP yes, LS not so much, it easy to do well when your roster has more than RHP’s entire enrollment
This was the matchup I’ve always wanted for LS. They’re up against a powerhouse, and the only path to a win is to be locked in at every level, execute, stay disciplined, and shut down their running game. People forget that Rio has 16 SS-CIF titles and are back to back 2023–2024 CIF champions. I have nothing but respect for the Rio Hondo Prep football program.
LS by 14