Football:

It was going to be interesting to see how San Dimas reacted to their first setback of the season.

One week ago, the Saints fell to Bonita, 28-16, at Mt. SAC in the annual Smudge Pot rivalry game.

They went from playing against the undefeated Bearcats to battling winless Western on Friday night in Anaheim.

To the Pioneers credit, they led 9-0 into the second quarter, and they took a 15-9 advantage into the final 12 minutes.

However, SDHS rallied for a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to escape with a 23-21 victory.

They enter their week-five bye at 4-1, which is tied for second most wins in the 210 Prep Sports coverage zone.

Only Bonita (5-0) has more.

Liam Loyola got San Dimas on the board when he recovered a fumble in the WHS end zone.

The Saints would tie the game on a safety after the Pioneers had a bad snap.

In the fourth quarter, Kris Saris snuck in from one yard out.

And with two minutes remaining in the game, Michael Baeza provided the death knell when he reeled in a 33-yard TD pass from Saris.

It’s the fifth TD catch of the season for the SDHS tight end.

San Dimas found a way to win in spite of playing far from their best football, at least on the offensive side of the ball.

They totaled just 139 yards of total offense.

Saris was 6-for-16 for 56 yards.

The sophomore tossed the TD pass to Baeza, but he was picked three times.

Gavin Westervoorde led the SDHS ground game with 78 yards on 10 carries.

Loyola (6-for-7) and Jacob Gallegos (3-for-8) combined to gain 15 yards on nine carries.

Gallegos caught five passes for 21 yards.

Adam Damato led the Saints defense with 10 tackles and a pair of pass deflections.

Baeza tallied five tackles, including two for-loss.

He also had three quarterback hurries and a forced fumble.

Landon Castaneda picked a pass for the San Dimas ‘D’ and Westervoorde finished with six tackles.

Up next: The Saints get week five off, and then they’ll travel to Alta Loma on October 2nd to begin Valle Vista League play.

Quotable:

San Dimas coach, Dylan O’Leary: “This game was unlike any other high school game I’ve been a part of. Our sideline’s energy throughout the game was electric, even when we were down. We got the cheer and dance team involved in our transition from the third to fourth quarter, played “jump around” on the speaker (which will be a San Dimas tradition now), and scored on our first drive in the fourth quarter to put us up. I couldn’t be more proud of our team, our coaching staff, and our program as a whole. We got down early, similar to the Bonita game, but our kids never flinched. They continued to fight, stayed together, and found a way to get back into the game and finish with a win.

Hats off to our defense. They got us on the board first and kept us in the game early. They continue to fly around to the football and make big plays when we need them. But what stood out to me most was the energy and belief on our sideline. You could feel that every player believed we were going to find a way to win, and I truly think that belief allowed us to come together and pull this one off. It feels good to be 4-1 heading into the bye week. I don’t think many people had that on their bingo card, but inside our program, our expectations for ourselves have always been high. We also understand that the real season starts now. We have plenty of football mistakes to clean up, but the culture being built and felt around here is a credit to our players, our staff, and the buy-in they’ve shown to this program. I’m proud of where we are, but I’m even more excited about where we can go in the second half of the season.”

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Box Score:
SD: 0-9-0-14-(23)
W: 9-0-6-6-(21)

Records: San Dimas (4-1); Western (0-5)