A Slow Start By The Tigers, But A Hot Finish

The long-awaited return of the San Jacinto Tigers football team has finally come. The last time they played in front of their home crowd was last year’s CIF championship game, where hundreds of fans traveled to watch them play, but this is a new season and a new team. San Jacinto needed to come out and make a statement that night after a tough loss the week before to Woodrow High School (Long Beach, CA) and that’s exactly what they did. Murrieta Mesa came into San Jacinto with a 0-2 record to start the season, they felt the pressure to get a win and came out playing like it. 

The first quarter was slow for both teams, with very little first downs or yards gained. Coach Galliano of the San Jacinto Tigers had this to say about the slow start: “They did some things defensively that we haven’t seen yet, so we needed to make adjustments heading into the half.” The Tigers were able to get into the endzone three times in the first half, including an amazing last-second touchdown throw from Kajiya Hollawayne to Kameron Rocha. The score going into the half was 19-14 in favor of the home team.

After halftime, the San Jacinto Tigers offense started to work the way they were designed too. Rushing to the line and catching the defense off their toes. Junior Quarterback Kajiya Hollawayne and Senior Runningback Juan Denny Jr. took turns punishing Murrieta Mesa on the ground. When they weren’t running down their throats, Kajiya was executing beautiful passes and hitting his guys in stride. They repaid him by getting tons of yards after the catch and fighting to get in the endzone. Our player of the week goes to Kajiya Hollawayne who ran for two touchdowns, and 214 yards. He also got it done through the air, throwing three touchdown passes to three different players and 234 yards. The Tigers would win the game with a final score of 39-27. Now the score could be misleading. San Jacinto’s defense did an excellent job shutting down Murrieta Mesa multiple times. However, the officiating of this game was very questionable. The refs ejected a San Jacinto player after he was on the receiving end of a push that happened after the whistle. There were a lot of unnecessary roughness/pass interference calls that shouldn’t have been called. Offsides called on the sidelines when no warnings were given. At one point penalties caused the San Jacinto Tigers offense to turn the ball over on downs after getting in the endzone two times on the same drive. Murrieta Mesa would then march down the field with the help of the referees (Half of the yards gained on the drive were from penalties) and score. 

Murrieta did a great job getting into the endzone on their own; they didn’t need the extra help. In other Mountain Pass League News, West Valley lost to Temecula Valley 0-44, everyone else in the Mountain Pass League would go home as victors. Hemet beat Banning 26-0; Tahquitz beat Indio 14-13; Beaumont beat Perris 59-0, and Citrus Hill beat Pacific 48-7. A great week for the league who are all building momentum before league play begins. 

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Student Body Section Was “Lit” As The Mustangs Dominated The Rams

It was a long night for Desert Mirage’s defense trying to keep up with West Valley’s skill players. Most of West Valley’s starters didn’t even see the field in the second half and were cheering on their teammates from the sidelines. West Valley scored two touchdowns in the very beginning of the game, one after receiving the ball at kick-off and the other after forcing a turnover (via fumble) and making Desert Mirage pay for the mistake by turning Tyrone Jackson Jr. (#3) loose for a 60 yard run, the game was quickly getting out of hand for the Rams and the Mustangs rushing game looked dominate.

Tyrone Jackson Jr wasn’t the only player who got to see the end zone last Friday night. Alfred Jones scored two times, once through the air and once on the ground. Tyrone Jackson Jr banked in two rushing touchdowns total and over 100 yards. Their performances made it hard to choose one of them for player of the week, so The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle decided that they both would share player of the week honors for this game. However, the Mustangs offense was feeling generous and four other players were able to get into the end zone. 

The student body section was screaming, dancing, and cheering their team on all game long. Many of the students came down and congratulated the team on their blowout victory, many of them looked like they were on the field with the team for the last two hours. That’s how hard they were cheering on their fellow Mustangs. The final score of the game was 55-0. The Mustangs put on a dominant showing in all phases of the game and looked like they might be ready to move up to a more competitive division like they were in the past. 

Coach Perez had this to say to the team after the game, “You guys enjoy this win, it was a big win and this is the first time West Valley has been 2-0 since 2014, however, get it all out of your system tonight because we are back here at 9:00 in the morning for film and Temecula Valley isn’t going to let us run all around the field on them like we did tonight, so we have to start preparing immediately. You understand? Celebrate until 9:00 tomorrow morning, and I want you guys in the film room ready to start preparing for next week.”

Coach Perez want them to enjoy their victory, but wanted them to understand that they need to start looking at next week’s matchup, Temecula Valley has an excellent program and is coming off a victory against Elsinore High. A matchup against them will help West Valley see what they need to tighten up before league games against Beaumont, Hemet, San Jacinto, and Citrus Hills. As of right now, the league play looks like it’s going to be tight. 

In other Mountain Pass League Games; Tahquitz edged out Indo 14-13, Hemet recorded their first win of the year against Vista Del Lago 35-21, San Jacinto fell to Woodrow High School 27-13, Beaumont was impressive in their week two victory over pacific 56-14, and Citrus Hill won their first game of the season 27-19 against Palm Springs. Pictures of the game will be available on my personal Facebook page @AuthorKyleRaeHeadlee

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San Jacinto Needs To Make A Statement Coming Off A Loss

The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle is taking you to San Jacinto High School this week for the Game of the Week. This week San Jacinto High is welcoming Murrieta Mesa into “The Jungle” as the two teams look to show the rest of Southern California that they are serious contenders. San Jacinto started the season off with a huge win against Great Oaks showing dominance in every phase of the game, but their winning streak was quickly brought to an end when they traveled to Long Beach last week to play Woodrow High School. San Jacinto lost this matchup, causing them to drop from the 94th ranked school in California to the 144th ranked school. 

The team (lead by Junior Quarterback Kajiya Hollawayne) will be looking to come out hot and put a lot of points on the board tonight in order to make a statement to the rest of the division, “Just because we took one L doesn’t mean we are out of it.” Ryan Cogdil (Defensive Coordinator of the Tigers) isn’t happy that the team lost, but believes it could be good for them; now they can come together as a team and show everyone that they are a serious threat this year. 

Murrieta Mesa is ranked 302 in California. They are starting non-league play 0-2; their first game was a blowout loss to La Serna and last week they were involved in an offensive dog fight losing to Etiwanda High School in overtime 42-35. On paper San Jacinto should be able to control this game; they have the talent to do so. It all comes down to the players trusting their coaches play calls and sticking to their assignments. Football is as much of a chess match as it is a physical contest and it takes both Players and Coaches to trust each other and be in sync in order for the team to find success. 

San Jacinto needs to use this week to find their identity again and remember that they only went as far as they did last year by play as one team that fired on all cylinders. Coach Galliano and Kajiya Hollawayne will do everything in their power to get that high pace offense working as it should be, this week. Ryan Cogdill needs one of his defensive playmakers to step up and be a leader on the field after losing one of his captains to injury last week. Who on the defensive side of the ball is going to step up and become the leader in his absence?

Other Mountain Pass League Matchups tonight include: Beaumont vs. Perris, Hemet vs. Banning, Tahquitz vs. Lakeside, West Valley vs. Temecula Valley, and Citrus Hill vs. Pacific. You can see the winners and losers of this game in next week’s paper, but why wait? Subscribe to The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle Facebook/Youtube for faster updates on local sports news. Pictures of the game will be available on my personal Facebook page @AuthorKyleRaeHeadlee.

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The Hemet High Bulldogs (finished last season 8-5) will take on the Chaparral (finished last season 7-4) Pumas on Friday, Aug. 23rd at Hemet High School. This is a non-league game, but will still be very competitive as these teams do know each other well enough and have a history of playing each other. Last season Chaparral beat the Bulldogs 24-7 at their house, this will be the first chance for the new regime in Hemet to show that they aren’t the same team that got beat last year. This will be our first look at the Hemet Bulldogs since longtime coach Jason Thornburg retired. The new Head Coach is Dennis Gregovich. Coach Gregovich isn’t new to coaching; he had a brief stint at Tahquitz High School in the past. 

Dennis Gregovich is an offensive coach and will look to light up the scoreboard this year. His system will be new to the league, which might give him an advantage. Chaparral returns their head coach Andrew Ramer who will look to start the season out strong. Chaparral dresses over 70 players at home games (not all will travel with the team) it is expected that Eli Bertran will be the man under center, as he leads the team in 7on7 tournaments during the offseason. Since Orlando Ornelas graduated in June. Chaparrals top four leading rushers all graduated and seven out of the eight receivers who banked in catches last year also graduated. 

Chaparral is putting in a very young team that hasn’t completely gelled together as a unit yet, brand new quarterback under center, brand new running backs, and brand new receivers. It’s going to be very interesting to see how this game plays out. As for Hemet they too have a brand new quarterback under center Jeremiah Graves who got some reps last year as a sophomore under Nicholas Thornburg. This year Jeremiah will try to earn the trust of his team and take down the sleeping giants in the division San Jacinto High School and Citrus Hill. Most of Hemet’s leading rushers graduated last year and so did their leading receivers, with Graves being a lone exception who transitioned from receiver to quarterback in the off-season.

Essentially these two teams are completely different from the last year and both will be ready to prove they have what it takes this season to compete for a playoff position. Pictures and video of the game will be on Facebook at Author Kyle Rae Headlee, if you see any pictures of your child you like feel free to grab them, all I ask is if you like the page. 

In other Mountain Pass News; San Jacinto will be taking on Great Oaks in Temecula, Tahquitz will play Vista Del Lago at Tahquitz, Beaumont vs. Palm Desert in Beaumont, Citrus Hill is playing a home game against Palm Springs, and West Valley will be facing off against Shadow Hills in Indio.

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