The Dos Pueblos Chargers controlled the ball and imposed their will on both sides of the field to secure their third win of the season against the Crescenta Valley Falcons at Scott O’Leary Stadium.
The Chargers (3-2) aim to carry that momentum into their first Tri-County League matchup against Hueneme on October 2 following their bye week.
In the first quarter, the Chargers relied on their run game early and often. On the second drive of the night, senior running back Chase Johnson broke off two runs of 27 and 26 yards to get the Chargers into the red zone. Junior quarterback Grady Felix finished the drive with a QB sneak for the first touchdown of the night. The extra point was no good, making the score 6-0 as the first quarter ended.
The next Falcons offensive possession was looking promising, as a downfield pass put them in Charger territory for the first time of the night. The drive was soon halted by great tackling from the Charger defense, and on fourth-and-8, a huge sack by senior defensive lineman Hunter Haws caused a turnover on downs.
The ensuing Charger drive continued the trend of tough running, with Johnson and Felix running the read option. Once again, the Chargers found themselves in the red zone. Felix was able to finish the drive by finding Soren Smedley for a 4-yard touchdown pass with 48 seconds remaining in the half.
Head Coach AJ Pateras credited the offensive line for the success of the run game.
“That’s the offensive line. Our offensive line, our offensive-line coach, how we practice, how we teach contact, how we teach the concepts we’re doing. We showed them that five- and six-man front pretty much all week, so we were blocking it all week long. And you can just see Chase has great vision, and then he can break some big runs.”
The Chargers were leading 13-0 and chose to attempt a surprise onside kick, which they recovered, setting them up in prime position to score more points before halftime. It was a savvy display of clock management, as the players knew when to run out of bounds to keep the clock from running while they chipped away at a couple of first downs and set up kicker Tiago Carmona for a chance to put more points on the board. As the clock ran down, Carmona and the special teams unit converted the 42-yard field goal attempt, making it 16-0 at the half.
As the third quarter was about to end, the Falcons, down 16-0, were desperate for points. A fake punt attempt on fourth-and-8 set their offense up at the Dos Pueblos 35-yard line. After a few runs, the Falcons were able to eke out their only touchdown of the night on a quarterback sneak by Phoenix Vengco. The two-point conversion attempt, which would have made it a one-possession game, was no good with 7:24 remaining in the game.
The Falcons tried their own onside kick but failed to recover. This set the Charger offense up in great position to finish the game with a scoring drive. Quarterback Grady Felix called his own number on the read option and rushed into the end zone, making the final score 23-6.
The Chargers don’t play again until October 2 due to their bye week, but for AJ Pateras and his staff, their goals are still ahead of them.
“We get a reset, no significant injuries in our program right now. We lost one in Santa Barbara, but everyone else is relatively healthy. It attributes to our strength and conditioning program. Right now, I think it’s just more about getting ready for the league. It was on our schedule, so we know all the teams (except Royal), we know the coaches, we know what they do. So it just comes down to great weeks of preparation, and then keeping our goal in mind of winning a new championship. And if we continue to play our best football, we’re gonna be really tough to beat.”
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