{"id":92322,"date":"2025-10-04T00:25:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T07:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=92322"},"modified":"2025-10-04T00:25:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T07:25:35","slug":"damien-rally-falls-short-24-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=92322","title":{"rendered":"Damien Rally Falls Short, 24-22"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Isaiah Arriaza led the Spartans back but they fell just short. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Tim Peterson <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(La Verne) – Isaiah Arriaza’s pass fell incomplete on a two-point conversion attempt with no time remaining and Damien fell to Rancho Cucamonga 24-22 Friday night on the Spartans home field. <\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

Damien had worked its way down to Rancho Cucamonga 16-yard line with under a minute left in the fourth quarter but a sack and a penalty moved the Spartans back to the 36 with just five seconds remaining. Down 24-16, Arriaza dropped back and fired a Hail Mary to the right corner of the endzone and Travon Garrison miraculously came down with it as the clock hit zeroes to make it 24-22. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rancho Cucamonga’s Tyree Wilson ran for 70 yards and had a 20-yard touchdown catch. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All that was left was the two-point conversion, A penalty pushed Damien five yards back and then Arriaza’s pass fell incomplete as the Rancho Cucamonga celebration began. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spartans looked like they were done. They were down 24-9 entering the fourth quarter before rallying for two consecutive touchdowns. First Arriaza hit Gavin Williams with six-yard strike over the middle to make it 24-16 with 9:19 left. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rancho Cucamonga then put together a drive down into Damien territory but the Cougars were stopped on the 18-yard line on fourth down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spartans took over at the 18 and drove 82 yards for the score that led to the dramatic ending. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Arriaza was intercepted in the endzone by Nate Mensah on Damien’s first possession, Rancho Cucamonga went up 10-0 early on 38-yard field goal by Romano Annecchini and a two-yard run by James Strong III with 2:31 left in the first quarter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Damien got on the board a minute later when Malachi McFarland broke through the Cucamonga secondary for a 72-yard touchdown jaunt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strong answered McFarland’s run with a sprint of his own as he took a pass from Jacob Chambers and raced 76 yards for a score with 3:49 left in the second quarter to make it 17-6. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After forcing a Damien punt, the Cougars hit paydirt again when Chambers hit Tyree Wilson in the endzone for a 20-yard touchdown. Rancho Cucamonga took a 24-6 lead into the half. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dillon MacKie kicked a 30-yard field goal for Damien in the third quarter that made it 24-9 heading into the fourth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
James Strong III provide the strength in the Cougars offense with 194 total yards and two touchdowns. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then the rally fell short and the Spartans fell from the ranks of the unbeaten. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Damien Arriaza threw for 179 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. McFarland had eight carries for 85 yards and a touchdown. Williams had four catches for 79 yards and a score. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the Cougars Strong had 100 yards and a touchdown rushing and 94 yards and a score receiving. Chambers threw for 134 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 83 yards on 12 carries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spartans suffered their first defeat and are now 5-1 overall but 0-1 in the Baseline League. Rancho Cucamonga is 2-4 and 1-0. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RC 10 14 00 00 24<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DA 06 00 03 13 22 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Peterson (La Verne) – Isaiah Arriaza’s pass fell incomplete on a two-point conversion attempt with no time remaining and Damien fell to Rancho Cucamonga 24-22 Friday night on the Spartans home field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"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-92322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hsfootball","category-high-school-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92322"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92338,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92322\/revisions\/92338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}