Photos by Gustavo Vargas
Football:
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
Saturday afternoon’s showdown between Citrus and Glendale was exactly what a conference championship game should look like.
Both sides landed punches, did some trash talking and fought until it said 0:00 on the scoreboard.
Citrus scored the game’s final 21 points in the fourth quarter and defeated GCC, 42-21, to clinch their first (American Metro) championship since 2006
The Owls improved to 9-0, which is the program’s best mark since 1975.
Former Ayala star Drew Merrill got Citrus off to a great start.
The Citrus defensive back blocked a GCC punt just 3:21 into the game, scooped it up, and sprinted 48 yards into the north end zone to give the Owls a 7-0 lead.
Glendale responded immediately, as Jahrique Lowe took a Nicholas Garcia pass 35 yards to tie the game at 7-7.
Jesse Carmona would give the Owls a 14-7 lead midway through the first quarter when he caught a 9-yard TD pass from Urena.
Urena broke the single-season TD record with his connection to Carmona.
But again, the Gauchos bounced back, when Garcia hit Carson Cardenaz on a 15-yard scoring strike.
GCC shut out the Owls in the second and third quarters and Giorgio Spiropoulos tied the game at 21-21, on a 4-yard TD run with 55 seconds to play in the third.
Citrus, however, would get three fourth-quarter TD’s to close out the championship, and they came from a pair of former Rio Hondo Prep athletes, Alex Vazquez and Jonathan Guerrero.
Vazquez caught a Urena pass and scored from 11 yards out to take a 28-21 lead.
And the smallest guy on the field, Jonathan Guerrero, would score his first two college TD’s.
Guerrero had a pair of 2-yard TD’s, including the first in which he broke what seemed to be three GCC tacklers.
The Urena-led offense had 474 yards of total offense as compared to 294 for Glendale.
Urena completed 20-of-25 for 304 yards.
He threw three TD’s and was picked once (Dominique Benson).
Austin Urena, Adam’s twin, had a game-high seven receptions for 87 yards.
Robert Vega caught three passes for 60 yards and Carmona had three receptions for 57 yards and the score.
Guerrero had a career-high 95 yards on 15 carries to go along with his two TD’s.
Late in the game, Guerrero had three consecutive first downs to not only move the sticks, but to bleed the clock.
Elijah Finney carried the ball 15 times for 47 yards, and caught a 6-yard TD pass in the first quarter.
Garcia had a big day for GCC, completing 25-of-42 for 312 yards.
Garcia had two TD’s and was picked once (Darren Mercer).
Artis Cole caught four passes for 96 yards for the Gauchos and Nicholas Johnson had six receptions for 51 yards.
The Citrus defense held GCC to a net minus-18 yards rushing.
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Box Score:
Cit: 21-0-0-21-(42)
GCC: 14-0-7-0-(21)
Scoring:
Cit: Drew Merrill 48 punt return (Kosuke Kayahara kick)
GCC: Jahrique Lowe 35 pass from Nicholas Garcia (John Delgado kick)
Cit: Jesse Carmona 9 pass from Adam Urena (Kosuke Kayahara kick)
GCC: Carson Cardenaz 15 pass from Nicholas Garcia (John Delgado kick)
Cit: Elijah Finney 6 pass from Adam Urena (Kosuke Kayahara kick)
GCC: Giorgio Spiropoulos 4 run (John Delgado kick)
GCC: Alex Vazquez 11 pass from Adam Urena (Kosuke Kayahara kick)
Cit: Jonathan Guerrero 2 run (Kosuke Kayahara kick)
Cit: Jonathan Guerrero 2 run (Kosuke Kayahara kick)
American Metro Conference Standings:
Citrus (9-0 overall, 4-0 in conference)
Glendale (5-4, 3-1)
Santa Ana (4-5, 3-1)
West LA (3-6, 1-3)
OCC (1-7, 0-3)
LA Southwest (0-8, 0-3)
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