Pacific View League Opener

Channel Islands (2-1, 0-0 PVL)

at Rio Mesa (4-1, 0-0 PVL)

We opened the Pacific View League season with a home game against what would turn out to be a very good defensive Channel Islands team.  Their only loss on the season was in their first game vs. Santa Clara by a score of 24-8. In their last two games, both wins, they had scored 44 and 45 points. Add to this the fact that they did not want to trade DVDs of their games and we entered the game with a world of concern. 

#42 Alexander Torres is about to hit the game's opening kickoff with #40 Mitch Haerterich in hot pursuit.

#15 Roderick White

Roderick has done a GREAT job filling in at tailback after our top two players at that position went down with injuries.  He contributed a team high 70 yards rushing on 15 carries vs. the Raiders. 

Darren Gales hits the hole

Even though he is seen here on offense, Darren is primarily used as our starting Free Safety. He had a spectacular, diving interception and broke up a Channel Island's pass.

Our Defensive Leaders

From left to right: #45, Zach Saldana is our Nose Guard.  He was named our Player of the Game for his 7 tackles that included 3 tackles for losses totaling -10 yards and a QB sack for -14 yards.

#52, Nick Gutierrez is our starting Middle Linebacker.  He contributed 5 tackles, 2 for losses totaling -4 yards.

#91, Ben Dixon starts at Defensive End and has been a big play maker all season long. Against Channel Islands he recorded 6 tackles including 2 for losses totaling -3 yards and he had a QB sack for -8 yards.

#3 James Turner, Defensive End

James is about two steps away from delivering a bone crunching shot to C.I.'s quarterback. This jarring QB sack for -7 yards signaled the beginning of the end for the Raider's offense.

#2 Payton Palmer-Newton performing a perfect Form Tackle on a Screen Pass

#11 Tanner Wrout scores the game's first TD on a 27 yards run.

Tanner played hard as usual. He gained 67 tough yards on 12 carries and caught 2 passes for another 14 yards. On defense he had a team high 8 tackles including a tackle for a loss of -13 yards.

#7 QB Trenton Thornton trying to organize the offensive huddle.

#32 Ben Quantock making a tackle for a -13 yards loss.

This was Ben's best defensive game of the season with a total of 5 tackles. He also had an 18 yards reception from his Tight End spot.

#2 Payton Palmer-Newton catching a 31 yards TD pass from Trenton Thornton.

Overall, Channel Islands did a great job shutting down our passing game as we only completed 4 of our 10 passes for 63 yards and this lone TD. The Raiders also recorded the first and only pass interception we have thrown through six games this year.

#14 Jujuan Beard picks off a C.I. pass late in the game to seal our fifth win of the season by a score of 14-0.

Fifth Quarter Antics

Due to the pounding that our defense meted out, by virtue of our fierce pass rush, the Raiders did not want to play offense in the Fifth Quarter due to a lack of quarterbacks. We agreed to still play one 10 play series with Rio Mesa playing offense only. In the picture above, Richard "Slick" Vasquez tosses a pass to...

... #42 Tight End Alex Torres.

Alex caught 2 passes from "Slick" in the Fifth Quarter.

"Slick" for SIX!

QB Richard Vasquez ran this Bootleg in for the Fifth Quarter's only score.

GAME SUMMARY

Rio Mesa 14 - Channel Islands 0

As stated at the start of this post, Channel Islands is a very good defensive team and held us to only 209 yards of Total Offense on 41 plays. The 14 points we scored was way below our season average of 29 points per game scored coming into the game.

Fortunately, we played very good defense ourselves! The Spartans intercepted 3 C.I. passes, had 3 QB sacks for -29 yards and notched a remarkable 11 tackles for losses totaling -49 yards!

Overall the Spartan defense dominated the Raiders allowing only 37 plays, good for a Total Offense figure of -6 Channel Islands yards and a only 4 first downs!!!

Next up for the Spartans (now 5-1 overall and 1-0 in PVL games) is a road trip to Pacifica High School this coming Thursday at 4:00 p.m. The Tritons are only 1-5 on the season but they did defeat Hueneme H.S. this week in their Pacific View League opener. This just turned our match-up into a game between two of the three teams that are 1-0 in PVL play, Camarillo H.S. is the third team tied atop the PVL's standings.