Heritage Holds Off Paloma to Win, 42-35, Stays Unbeaten

Heritage High School running back Aleva Hifo eludes a Paloma Valley defender to gain yardage during Friday night's game. Photos cour...

Heritage High School running back Aleva Hifo eludes a Paloma Valley defender to gain yardage during Friday night's game.
Photos courtesy kristijophotography.com

By Daniel Millhouse

In a game of winner takes all, both Heritage and Paloma Valley high schools left everything they had on the field Friday night, but unfortunately only one could win. The game came down to the final couple of minutes and Heritage's Patriots held on to their lead for a 42-35 victory to take the Menifee Bowl and clinch first place in the Sunbelt League.

For Paloma Valley (6-3, 3-1), it was Senior Night and emotions ran high not just on the field, but also in the packed stands on both sides of the field.

The Wildcats struck first when on fourth down and three yards to go on the Heritage 6-yard line, they opted to go for it. Sophomore quarterback Chance Nolan dumped off a pass to senior running back Demarco Prewitt, who scored on a 6-yard touchdown pass with 5:42 left in the first quarter for the first score of the game.

Not to be deterred by the energy Paloma Valley had, Heritage (9-0, 4-0) struck back for three straight touchdowns in the first and second quarters. Senior running back Jalen Glover took the ball into the end zone all three times on rushes of 2, 1, and 7 yards to give his team a 21-7 lead.

"When you’re running the ball, his (Glover) position is going to get the ball a lot and he’s a great runner," said Heritage coach Kraig Broach. "He’s going to get the ball a lot in the game. It’s just a credit to what kind of game he had."

With a minute left in the second quarter, Paloma Valley pushed to score before the end of the half. With the ball on its own 33-yard line, Paloma Valley ran a halfback option play to the left with Andre Kirkpatrick looking downfield to throw the ball. With no open options, he tucked in the ball and ran to the right side of the field for a 51-yard run that put his team on the 16-yard line with 10 seconds left in the half.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, they couldn’t convert this into a score when Nolan was unable to hit wide receiver Cameron Whatley in the end zone with one second left.

The momentum remained in the Patriots' favor after the half, helping them score in the first drive of the third quarter. Senior Aleva Hifo took the ball in for a 2-yard touchdown run to put his team up 28-7 with 7:42 left in the third quarter (above).

During the next Paloma Valley possession, the Heritage defense took a hit when defensive lineman Quentin Asberry, who is his team’s leader in sacks, went down after his left hamstring cramped up. Taking advantage of the situation, Prewitt led his team downfield, leading to a touchdown pass from Nolan to wide receiver Corez English for a 14 yards with 6 minutes left in the third quarter.

The Paloma Valley fans who were silenced during the second quarter of the game reawakened in the third quarter, motivating the Wildcats defense. On two consecutive possessions, the Wildcats stopped the Patriots, led by a Kirkpatrick sack and key tackles by junior Maleek Baranauskas and sophomores Phil Mills and Steven Bradshaw.

"We just got together and our coach told us that someone has to step up," Mills said after the game. "So everyone tried to step up and we started to make plays."

"We knew last year that this is a special sophomore group," Paloma Valley coach Bert Esposito said after the game about the play of his sophomore players, who had made key plays in the game. "They don’t play like sophomores. They’re not sophomore football players anymore, but we knew a year ago we have a handful of sophomores that are as good as anybody."

Getting the ball back, Prewitt ran the ball for a 44-yard touchdown run to close the Heritage lead to only 7 with a score of 28-21.

Undefeated as the starting quarterback of the Patriots, senior Brett Virgil stepped up and hit Jalen Glover for a 7-yard touchdown pass with 4:43 left in the game to give Heritage a 14-point lead late in the game.

"This group of kids, this group of seniors, they don’t need to be told what to do," Broach said of his team’s seniors. "They understand enough for them to focus and just execute some tough, physical drives against a good team."

Not waiting long to score, Paloma Valley then took the ball downfield, scoring within 33 seconds on another Prewitt touchdown, this time for 4 yards, putting the score at 35-28 with 4:10 left.

Paloma Valley kicker Kyle Shernicoff attempted an onside kick, but Heritage was able to recover the ball, giving the Patriots good field position at the Paloma Valley 47-yard line. In less than a minute, Glover ran the ball for 47 yards and his fourth rushing touchdown of the night -- his fifth TD overall in the game.

After the game, when asked about keeping their cool while Paloma Valley tried to mount a comeback, Glover said, "We had to just keep our spirits up. We had to look out for each other and make sure that we didn’t get our heads down because once we do that, the momentum may never switch back."

With 3:16 left in the game and down by two touchdowns, the Wildcats drove the ball downfield on a 40-yard screen pass from Nolan to Prewitt, soon followed by a 1-yard run by Prewitt for his third rushing touchdown and fourth overall touchdown of the night, to put his team down by 7 with 1:58 left.

Shernicoff attempted an onside kick again, but Patriots senior Marcus McIntosh was able to snag the ball on the Paloma Valley 42-yard line. A third-down run by Hifo to give Heritage a first down shut the door on the Wildcats and sealed the 42-35 victory for the Patriots.

The Heritage victory gives the Patriots a 29-game winning streak in Sunbelt League play and assures them a spot in the playoffs.

"Obviously we have to go to practice and just keep on grinding to get better for the playoffs," said Heritage linebacker Anthony Adcock about the rest of the season.

Despite the close score, Heritage dominated on time of possession, holding on to the ball for 32:15 compared to 14:18 by Paloma Valley. Heritage dominated in the rushing game with 430 yards rushing, but were held to only 30 yards passing compared to the Wildcats' 198 yards.

Key players for Heritage include Glover, who ran 26 times for 154 yards and 4 rushing touchdowns while catching 2 passes, one of which was a receiving touchdown. Virgil ran the ball 18 times for 123 yards and Hifo ran the ball 9 times for 71 yards and 1 touchdown. Before going down to injury, Asberry had 1 sack.

Notable performances for Paloma Valley included Prewitt’s 18 carries for 145 yards and 3 touchdowns while catching 6 more passes for 70 yards and 1 receiving touchdown. Nolan completed 17 passes out of 25 attempts for 198 yards passing and 2 touchdown passes. The defense was led by the two sophomores -- Mills, who collected 14 tackles, and Bradshaw, who collected 10. Seniors Robert Halverson and Andrew Ramos had 9, while junior defensive back Kirkpatrick had 6 with 1 sack.

"This game could have gone either way," Esposito said after the game ended. "Their size was really tough. We had a hard time stopping them in the first half. We made some adjustments at halftime. Who knows? Maybe we’ll see them in the playoffs."

With one week left in the season, Heritage will go on to face Lakeside High School (3-6, 0-4) at home on Nov. 6. Paloma Valley will travel to Temescal Canyon (3-6, 2-2) to try to grab the second-place spot in the Sunbelt League on Nov. 6.

Heritage quarterback Brett Virgil finds open running room in Friday's Menifee Bowl.

Paloma Valley quarterback Chance Nolan hands the ball off to Steven Bradshaw.

Corez English and Steven Bradshaw celebrate in the end zone after English's touchdown catch.

Many hands are placed on the Menifee Bowl trophy after Heritage's win over Paloma Valley.

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