Football:
When the CIF-SS playoffs get underway this week, Damien and Rancho Cucamonga will be without a pair of key players.
For the few that haven’t heard, the end of Friday’s Baseline League showdown between Damien and their hosts from Rancho Cucamonga was exciting, consequential and unfortunately, it turned ugly.
Trailing 34-31, and with just a handful of seconds on the clock, RCHS’ Romano Annecchini set up for a 42-yard game-tying field goal attempt.
However, Damien’s Mekhi Freeman came around the left corner untouched, and Freeman blocked the field goal attempt.
Freeman scooped up the ball and nearly brought it back for a 70-yard TD as the clock struck triples zeroes.
While the vast majority of the 22 athletes on the field were sprinting towards the south end zone and the play at hand, Damien’s Jaxson Gates (No. 12), as you’ll see in the video below at approximately the 12-second mark, charges the Rancho Cucamonga sideline.
Gates gestured emphatically and taunted his former teammates.
He actually made it to the RCHS line that separates the playing field from the sideline before a number of Cougars’ coaches pointed for him to head to the Damien sideline.
After Gates had finished, he turned towards the south end zone, and at the 20-second mark or so, you’ll see Rancho’s Daniel Wimbush (No. 2) sending Gates flying by hitting the Spartans’ junior while his back was turned.
A fantastic back-and-forth game, in which dueling quarterbacks, Isaiah Arriaza of Damien and Jacob Chambers of RCHS, played the role of hero, will be remembered for a fight that has now cost four players dearly.
On Monday, according to sources, Jaxson Gates will be suspended for three games.
Damien’s Gavin Williams (No. 1), who you see entering the fracas from the southern end of the field after watching his teammate getting slammed from behind, will have to sit out Friday’s home game against San Clemente.
Daniel Wimbush, a talented senior wide receiver will not play another high school football game unless the Cougars make a run to the D-2 finals.
Wimbush and his teammate, senior defensive back-wide receiver, Wavie Alloway, who reportedly grabbed a Damien player by the facemask, received three-game suspensions.
If the Spartans don’t play three games in this 2024 postseason, Gates, a junior, would sit out the rest of his suspension at the beginning of the 2025 season.
The brawl took some of the shine off the fact that DHS’ 3-point win secured a first victory over RCHS since joining the Baseline League back in 2014, and an outright league championship.
Up next: On Friday, Rancho Cucamonga (6-4) travels to top-seeded Murrieta Valley, and Damien (8-2) hosts San Clemente (5-5) in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 2 playoffs.
Friday’s Baseline Scores:
Damien 34, RCHS
Etiwanda 35, Ayala 21
Chino Hills 17, Upland 12
2024 Baseline Standings:
Damien (8-2, 5-0)
Chino Hills (7-3,4-1)
RCHS (6-4, 3-2)
Upland (4-6, 2-3)
Etiwanda (3-6-1, 1-4)
Ayala (2-8, 0-5)
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