Warren High's winning streak snapped
Warren High quarterback Isabella Gonzalez (9) throws a pass against Palos Verdes in their non-league girls flag football game at Warren High School on Monday. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
DOWNEY — A seven-game winning streak for the Warren High School girls flag football team came to an end Monday night (August 31), as the visiting Palos Verdes Sea Kings defeated the Bears, 47-12 at Justice Stadium.
In a second game this week the Bears (9-4, 1-1) fell to Cal Hi 12-7 in Gateway league action Wednesday (Sept. 2). .
Referring to the Palos Verdes game Warren head coach Chad Bell said, “PV was a really good team,” he said. “I thought our girls played with effort, but we weren’t good enough on Monday night.
“Even though losses hurt, they are good because we have a lot to learn from and get better for league. I’m looking forward to our league schedule coming up. Can’t wait to see how we do against tough league competition.”
The Bears recently started Gateway League competition with a shutout win over Gahr, 32-0, last week.
With the game against Cal, Warren continues league competition next week with games against Bellflower and La Serna.
Beginning Sept. 19th they host their first tournament, the Warren Invitational, with games against Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks and Inglewood and conclude the 8-team tourney the next Saturday (Sept. 26) with two more games (Teams to be determined).
In mid-August, the Bears played in the annual Los Angeles Chargers Invitational. They went 3-2, with wins over Fullerton (32-6), Esperanza (19-6) and Mira Mesa (20-0).
In the Palos Verdes game, the Sea Kings were stopped on only three drives without scoring, two of which were interceptions by the Bears.
After PV punted for its one and only time of the game, the Bears went on a short five-play drive to take their only lead of the game, 6-0.
Starting at the Warren 30, senior quarterback Bella Gonzalez threw five consecutive completions to senior Kayla Kidd, junior Jocelyn Escobar, two more short passes to Kidd, followed by a touchdown pass to sophomore Jaylah Rodriguez . Rodriguez, with her fifth score of the season, was all alone for the 20-yard touchdown with 7:22 left in the opening quarter. The extra point attempt came up short.
Rodriguez has over 43 catches for over 370 yards this season.
Gonzalez said of the Palos Verdes game: “It’s definitely going to be the competition we see come the CIF playoffs,” she said. “It’s the competition that we want to face this early in the season. We’ll learn a lot from the game of course and we’ll make those adjustments we need to be better. It’s just a testament to the hard work we’re going to put in.
“The season has been pretty good so far and we had a tough loss (Monday).”
Bella Gonzalez has now thrown 40 touchdowns on the season and has over 2700 yards and only five interceptions.
PV came right back and took the 7-6 lead that they would not relinquish the rest of the way with a five-play scoring drive at the 4:39 mark of the quarter.
Junior Sea Kings receiver Addie Eroen (9 catches, 99 yards) came down with the ball in traffic at the goal line for the score and took the lead with the extra point.
Warren’s Samantha Tinoco (33) grab the flag of a Palos Verdes player in their non-league girls flag football game at Warren High School on Monday. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
After Warren went three and out on its next possession, PV took a 13-6 lead early in the second quarter on a short TD pass from senior quarterback Ellie Correa (32 of 42, 359 yards, 6 TDs, 2 Int.) to senior receiver Ava Kordich (7 catches, 99 yds., 3 TDs) with only10 seconds gone in the quarter.
The Bears went on a 6-play drive, but ended with a short incompletion.
Highlighting that drive was a long first down pass just inside the PV half to Escobar.
The Sea Kings came right back for a score to take a 20-6 lead with 5:26 left in the quarter.
After Warren went three and out on the ensuing drive, the Bears defense came up with an interception that led to their second score of the game.
On the third play of the PV drive, Warren junior defender Angelina Avina intercepted the pass and ran it back 30 yards inside the Sea Kings territory.
Warren went on a six-play drive, culminating with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Gonzalez to Escobar with 1:04 left in the half.
Highlighting the drive were a couple of short completions to Kidd and a couple of first down catches by junior receiver Ariannah Gonzalez, the second catch which set up the TD by Escobar. Gonzalez has over 40 receptions for over 550 yards this season.
“Being able to bring my team back up (with the touchdown) and give them that confidence that we could still could put the hard work in really felt meaningful to me,” said Escobar of the touchdown.
The touchdown was the 10th of the season for Escobar. She also has over 50 catches and over 700 yards receiving.
As for the top receivers for the Bears, Escobar said, “They are great players and I can count on them and we all can count on each other.”
The extra point catch by Kidd was caught in the end zone, however Bella Gonzalez’ flag was pulled before the throw.
PV came right back with another quick score, as its 6-foot receiver Kordich out jumped the Warren defense for the touchdown and 27-12 halftime lead.
Kidd was a big part of the short game and she said of her many catches, “It was mainly because of their rusher was getting to Bella faster,” she explained. “The only option she really had was to get it to me.
“I did catch every ball, but it was tough to get around everyone because they were athletic and fast. Utilizing me was a big tool because if not we wouldn’t have many catches.”
On the season, Kidd came into the game with 215 rushing yards with 32 receptions for 294 yards.
The third quarter started fast and came to a screeching halt after Warren went four and out and PV took over just inside midfield.
After a couple of short PV completions, Correa connected with Eroen for a long completion down to the 4-yard line.
On the next play junior defender Sofia Saucedo made a good defense of a pass and again on the next play in the end zone.
She appeared to make a great interception to end the PV drive, but after much discussion by the officials, the play was ruled a touchdown.
That’s when the confusion began and 20 minutes later a decision was finally reached.
“It was a lot of back-and-forth from the refs,” she explained. ”It was almost as if they weren’t (officiating) me. One of the refs on my side claimed that it was a touchdown, but the ball was dead. I tried to intercept the ball in the end zone and somehow it goes through my legs and it hits the ground. Once it hit the ground (the PV player) picks up the ball and celebrates as if she had the touchdown. (The officials) didn’t see the ball roll off of me and hit the ground.”
Coach Bell stated his case to the refs and eventually it was overturned.
“It was so long, like 20 minutes of them just trying to figure it out,” said Saucedo, who is in her second year on the team.
On Warren’s ensuing possession, the Sea Kings came back with an interception of their own and turned it into another score to go ahead, 34-12, in the third quarter.
PV (9-1) would go on to score two more times in the fourth quarter to finish the scoring, 47-12.
The Warren players said their big goals were to beat Downey, win league and to “bring home the ring.”
Downey High improves to 9-3
The Vikings (9-3, 3-0) have won seven of their last nine games, including the last three in a row.
Early this week, Downey shutout Bellflower (Monday), 44-0, in a league game and defeated Mira Costa, 33-13, Tuesday in a nonleague game.
On Wednesday, Downey defeated Gahr, 28-6, in a league game.
Highlighting the Bellflower win, junior quarterback Maddy Garcia threw for 290 yards on 27 of 40 attempts, six touchdowns and no interceptions.
Also on the offensive side for the Vikings against Bellflower, 11 different players caught at least one pass with sophomore Izel Valerio leading the way with seven catches for 63 yards and a touchdown.
In the win over Mira Costa, Garcia threw five TDs and 271 yards passing.
Junior receiver Carissa Rodriguez (80 yds., 4 TDs), Valerio (70 yds.) and sophomore Victoria Navarro (60 yds.) led the Vikings in receiving yards.
For the season, Garcia has 3,063 yards, 44 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. She has also rushed for 312 yards on 64 carries.