By Alex A. Gonzalez
West Covina – 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.
“We did amazing out here,” commented Nolaco postgame. “We had a couple of mistakes, but we learned from those. I couldn’t have done it without my team. We did absolutely amazing.”
The 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.
Elias 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.
El 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.
Although Anaya’s 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.
After 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.
El Rancho took the 10-3 lead into intermission.
Following 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.
Even 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.
The 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.
However, 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.
With 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.
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Just want to point out ER made a D11 final in 2024 and played in the D10 playoffs last season and was as high as D7 a few years ago… so technically speaking you are full of DELETED
Hehe ER still trash only competitive when they move down to D12
The LM game will be tough… they might be a D5 level program or better this season. Los Altos will be another tough test.
ER should just petition to join the hacienda league with South Hills, West Covina, and Los Altos already on their schedule.
Los Altos may be big and talented but their roughest test has been Schurr that has looked like a door mat so far this season. Plus Los Altos has yet another door mat next week in HH Wilson. And Los Altos previous opponents are a combined 0-9 .
ER might beat La Mirada, but not Los Altos. The Conqs are not only big, but talented to boot. Ziola is the kind of coach St Paul should have landed instead of the bargain-basement kid they have.
@ERFAN which is why ER will never win a chip because they believe in “we don’t play politics and lay down”. That’s the worse way to think in today’s game. You think these kids will walk away from HS saying woohoo we played tough teams or you think they’d walk away with a better feeling if they left HS with a RING!
Slugging it out with the big guys…..and winning tight ones/but…………I think Medrano was planning to be 1-2 at this point not 3-0 when making this schedule. Now El Rancho is deep into D7 instead of D11 and if they beat Los Altos or La Mirada they are staring at D5 or D6 according to the computer rankings and looking at a Rio Hondo Prep or Cypress first round playoff game. I know the Ranch is hoping to run the table and play his old team Bonita in D4 so lotsa luck. Medrano does not play politics and lay down for a favorable draw no matter what.
The Ranch is legit