St. Paul High School’s Marcus Garcia (46) and Daniel Trejo (47) team up to bring down Garfield’s Andrew Rodriguez. St. Paul won the nonleague game, 22-7. (Photo by Mario Villegas)
Story Published:
Sep 16, 2009 at 1:59 PM PDT
Story Updated:
Sep 16, 2009 at 1:59 PM PDT
Coach Lorenzo Hernandez could sum up his Garfield High School football team’s 22-7 loss to St. Paul this way: It was a team effort.
As he noted, the Bulldogs were deficient in just about every imaginable in falling to 1-1 on the season.
“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong,” Hernandez said.
“Our line didn’t do its best job, special teams didn’t do a good job and our secondary got caught up in play-action. We were even horrible when it came to penalties. We must have had 100 yards of them. I don’t think I called a good game, so we even got out-coached. We usually have one bad game a year and hopefully, we’ve got it out of our way.”
Considering Garfield (1-1) hosts a Wilson team that defeated the Bulldogs last year, Hernandez is really hoping his players learned their lessons.
“Wilson always plays us tough,” he said. “They’ve got that spread offensive set, which we’ve always struggled against. Their defense always causes us problems, too.”
Garfield was tied, 7-7 at halftime, but St. Paul scored two touchdowns after intermission.
Offensively, the Bulldogs never got much going.
Jonathan Lazo was only 4-of-15 for 50 yards with an interception. Tailback Jonathan Lopez rushed for a team-best 40 yards on nine carries.
Defensively, Jonathan Valles had 11 solo tackles and eight assists, Moses Saucedo had eight solo, four assists and two sacks, and William Fonseca returned an interception 30 yards for their only score and had eight solos and four assists. Hector Cazales had nine solos and five assists.
“This was a good learning experience,” Hernandez said. “What we learned, is if we make mistakes against a team like St. Paul, we are going to pay for it.”
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Junior Christian Bucknor scored six touchdowns and rushed for 283 yards to help South Gate crush Bernstein, 47-0 in the season opener for the Rams.
Bucknor, who carried 12 times, scored five TDs on runs from scrimmage and a sixth on a pass reception. He had two catches for 29 yards.
Ernesto Renteria added 74 yards on eight carries as South Gate piled up 390 yards on the ground.
Ricardo Estrada led the defense with two interceptions.
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Huntington Park (1-1) dedicated its new turf field with a 29-21 victory over Lincoln in a nonleague game.
Alexander Mendez had seven solo tackles and four assists and Christian Balbuena returned an interception 65 yards to lead the Spartan defensive effort.
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Narbonne pounded South East, 46-6 in another nonleague contest.
Robert Lewis rushed for 154 yards on 22 carries for South East.
Defensively, the Jaguars were led by Rolando Sandoval, who had two interceptions, and Allen Hall, who added five solo tackles.
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Franklin blanked Don Lugo, 35-0 and Canoga Park stopped Eagle Rock, 42-0 in other nonleague games.
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