Wildcats' furious rally falls just short against Hillcrest, 46-42

Paloma Valley QB Orlando Gonzalez gets ready to throw under pressure. (Photo by Action Captures Media Group)

By Doug Spoon, Editor

The Paloma Valley Wildcats and their fans had some kind of fun in the final five minutes of Thursday night’s home football game against Hillcrest High. In fact, Paloma Valley outscored the opposition 21-0 in that short time period – something one might think would result in a comeback victory.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, a 21-0 late scoring spree doesn’t mean as much when you were trailing by 25. Final score: Hillcrest 46, Paloma Valley 42.

Wildcats quarterback Orlando Gonzalez passed for 347 yards and 5 touchdowns, but it wasn’t quite enough in a game marked by missed opportunities in the second and third quarters. Arthur Clemmons caught 8 passes for 160 yards and 3 TDs, but it still wasn’t enough. Led by a consistent ground game that ate up much of the clock, Hillcrest came away with the victory, improving its record to 2-3 and dropping the Wildcats to 1-4.

In addition to having trouble keeping their defense off the field in the second and third quarters, Paloma Valley was unable to get any sort of ground game going on offense. Gonzalez tried his best to make up the difference through the air, completing 22 of 40 passes, but he also threw 2 interceptions and didn’t string together completions until the final minutes.

Meanwhile, Hillcrest mounted sustained drives led by quarterback Matthew Ramos, who rushed for 122 yards and 2 touchdowns and passed for 162 yards and 2 more scores. In addition, running back Reyez Ortiz rushed for 127 yards and 2 TDs.

Those performances took some of the punch out of the Wildcats’ late heroics, as coach Juan Merida acknowledged after the game.

“It was a little too late,” he said of the rally. “We had a lots of missed opportunities early, bad routes, blown coverages … You can’t beat a good football team that way. They made some adjustments in the secondary and that was the difference in that middle part of the game.

“Hats off to them. They did a good job with their coverages and in not giving up easy stuff. We have to find a way to get our defense off the field. They ran the ball really hard and we weren’t tackling very well.”

Paloma started fast, scoring just four plays into the game on a 2-yard touchdown run by Dallas Gualco. That play was set up by a 52-yard pass from Gonzalez to Noah Davis. Hillcrest evened the score at 7-7 late in the first quarter, however, on a 28-yard run by Ramos.

The teams traded scores again when Gonzalez hit Clemmons with a 67-yard TD pass and Hillcrest’s Ramos passed 28 yards to Zyren Jones for a touchdown. The only other scoring of the first half came on a 9-yard run by the Trojans’ Ramos with 2 seconds left in the second quarter for a 21-14 lead.

The third quarter was all Hillcrest. In fact, Paloma Valley had just six offensive plays in that period. Meanwhile, Hillcrest added two scores in that quarter and a third early in the fourth period following a Gonzalez interception, opening up a 40-14 lead.

That’s when the fun began.

On the next possession, Gonzalez threw 18 yards to Clemmons for a touchdown, cutting the deficit to 40-21. Unfortunately, Hillcrest got that one back on the next play when Nicholas Bernal returned the kickoff 45 yards for a TD. That made it 46-21.

In the next frantic few minutes:

-- Gonzalez threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Clemmons.

-- Hillcrest punted four plays later.

-- Gonzalez threw three straight incompletions, followed by double personal foul penalties when a brief scuffle broke out. Paloma marched downfield to score again on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Gonzalez to Gualco. That made it 46-35, but only 42.2 seconds remained.

-- On the next play, Paloma recovered an onside kick. Six plays later, Gonzalez found Eunice Defro in the end zone from 10 yards out and suddenly, after the PAT kick, the deficit was only 46-42.

Yet the clock showed only 4.8 ticks left. What might’ve happened if the Wildcats had had a more balanced offense in the middle of the game?

“We lost our starting running back with a torn ACL before the season started,” said Merida about sophomore Sean Harrison when referring to a struggling ground game. “We’ve found a couple guys. Dallas is doing the best he can out there. But it just seems like we always miss an opening here, miss a block there … we just aren’t in sync yet.

“Fortunately, you can always count on Arthur to make some good plays. He’s a competitor and he’s got elite talent. Noah Davis had a really good game as well. Orlando had some phenomenal plays and he also made some mistakes, as you’re going to do when you’re throwing the ball so much. We just haven’t put it all together yet.”

Arthur Clemmons reaches out to put the ball over the goal line. (Photo by Action Captures Media Group)

 Dallas Gualco heads for the end zone on a touchdown pass play. (Photo by Action Captures Media Group)

 Arthur Clemmons makes a catch in a crowd for the Wildcats. (Photo by Action Captures Media Group)

 Daniel Sanchez tries to get around the corner against the defense. (Photo by Action Captures Media Group)