{"id":97565,"date":"2026-08-06T13:52:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T20:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=97565"},"modified":"2026-08-06T14:02:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T21:02:41","slug":"gano-league-at-a-glance-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=97565","title":{"rendered":"Gano League at a Glance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Kevin Encinas, shown here at San Gabriel, has taken over as the head coach at Nogales. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

Here’s a look at the Gano League. Rowland looking to get even better but Nogales is right on the Raiders’ heels. Can Walnut and Don Lugo get well and rise up? Chaffey and Montclair might make some noise. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

1. Rowland – Head Coach: Citos Marinez. Rowland finished 10-0 last year but the Raiders are looking for something even more – an extended playoff run. They have several key returning players on both sides of the ball. Xavier Carrillo, RB\/LB, Kayleb Nicholson, WR\/DB, Edison He, DL\/OL, Lawrence Biehn, WR\/DB Rafael Lopez, OL\/DL, will all line up on offense and defense. Linebacker Fabian Valdez and defensive back Nicholas Adoure will play key roles on defense. Receivers Kelly Egere and Isiah Wright will both play in the secondary. If all of these players perform to expectations Rowland should be at the top of the heap in the Gano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Nogales – Head Coach: Kevin Encinas. Matt Villasenor stepped down after the season to take over as the head coach at Muir paving the way for Kevin Enicnas to be promoted to head coach of the Nobles. Encinas was on the Nogales staff last year and is more than ready to take the reins. Encinas won a CIF championship previously as the head coach at San Gabriel. Nogales went 7-4 overall last year (5-0 in the Montview) and lost in the first round of the CIF playoffs to Bellflower. Noagles has several pieces in place to start this season. Gatsbee Gumban, who had a big year last year for Covina, has transferred in. Joseph Venegas will be at quarterback and Davon Lewis, a real talent, will lead the receiver room along with Isaac Guzman and Junior Ronquillo. The offensive line will feature a couple big dudes in Derek Gonzlaez and Noah Viramontes. Defensively the Nobles will feature linebacker Christian Flores, defensive lineman Travon Thomas and defensive back Adrinn Ry. Nogales has the tools on offense and enough defensively to compete with Rowland. Should be a battle at the top. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Walnut – Head Coach: Joe Goyeneche. Walnut is coming off a rough season. The Mustangs went 4-6 last year and 0-5 in the Hacienda League missing the playoffs. This year they are in a new league and have a new coach in Joe Goyeneche. Walnut does have quarterback Nohlen Simons back as well as running back Damian Banuelos. Simons threw for nearly 1,400 yards and 11 touchdowns. Banuelos will also be a force on defense from his linebacking position where he had 92 total tackles last season. The Mustangs should be middle of the pack but they have some work to do to get in playoff position. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Don Lugo – Head Coach: Pete Smolin: Longtime coach Pete Smolin, who had left the area to coach high school football in Utah, has returned as the head coach at Don Lugo. Smolin has put together a quality staff. Did you know, according to Max Preps, that Don Lugo has 14 coaches on its staff? That’s a great start. The Conquistadors needed a new start after finishing 1-9 a year ago. Don Lugo has a couple quarterbacks to choose from with both Brandon Pinon and Savian Sumlar returning. Pinon threw for 628 yards and nine touchdowns in ’25 as a sophomore. The Conquistadors have a long way to go to just get back to .500, but with Smolin at the helm and an experienced coaching staff they should be able to get off the floor. It just may take a couple of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Chaffey – Head Coach: Chris Brown. The Tigers made the playoffs last season going 5-6 overall and 2-1 in the Gano. The Tigers only loss was to league champ Rowland. Chaffey likes to pound the ball running for over 2,800 yards last year as a team but the Tigers lost their top two rushers to graduation. They do have senior Alexis Almeida returning from a season in which he ran for 690 yards and six touchdowns. As a comparison Chaffey only had 838 yards passing on the season. With a six team league the Tigers will need to grind out a couple more league wins to get to the post season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Montclair – Head Coach: Tony Gomez. Montclair is another team that is trying to get back on track after going 4-6 last year and missing the playoffs. The Cavaliers have a couple of good local games early with Covina and Burroughs before heading into league play. They will need to win at least two or maybe even three league games to have a shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Peterson can be reached at tim.midvalleysports@gmailcom or on Twitter (X) @tspeterson40. Facebook-Tim Peterson. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

By Tim Peterson Here’s a look at the Gano League. Rowland looking to get even better but Nogales is right on the Raiders’ heels. Can Walnut and Don Lugo get well and rise up? Chaffey and Montclair might make some noise.<\/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-97565","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\/97565","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=97565"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97651,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97565\/revisions\/97651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}