Photos by Gus Vargas

Football:

There were moments in Friday night’s Mountain West League showdown between visiting Ayala and Charter Oak, that had you not been aware of the score, one might have thought the Bulldogs weren’t faring too well.

And that was based off the animation of the Ayala coaches on the east sideline.

But there were a number of reasons for their frustration.

The first being, this program is built for and has a mindset of pursuing championships, and they wanted in the worst way to head into the playoffs clicking on all cylinders.

Ayala, however, is a run-heavy offense, and in their week-10 contest, the Bulldogs were down to their fourth-string running backs.

And then there was a matter of so many flags thrown against both sides that neither the Bulldogs or Chargers could get a rhythm going.

To put that into perspective, when the Glendora-South Hills & Bonita-Alta Loma games had already ended, there were still 11 minutes to play at Charter Oak.

At the end of the night, however, Ayala left with both a 40-14 victory and a Mountain West League championship.

In spite of all the injuries, Ayala out-rushed Charter Oak by a margin of 287-46.

Ayala seniors Chandler Carthan and Drew Merrill set the tone early and the Bulldogs took a 34-0 lead after the first three quarters.

Carthan finished with 100 yards rushing on eight carries.

Carthan’s first long run of the game set up a 21-yard TD run from Drew Merrill.

In a defining moment early on, Merrill dropped his head, bounced off a few defenders to pick up a much-needed first down and his teammates seemed to feed off his toughness.

Merrill would finish with 40 yards rushing and had one catch for 11 yards.

After freshman Jedi Hernandez scored on a 1-yard run, Ayala quarterback Bryan Wilson hit Javier Garcia on a fourth-and-goal play from the three yards out to give Ayala a 21-0 lead.

Hernandez has filled some huge shoes of late, and rushed for 106 yards and two TD’s.

Wilson finished 6-of-12 for 94 yards and the one TD.

Alex Thomas also had a rushing TD for the Bulldogs.

Dominic Alloway had a 62-yard pick-six for Ayala.

Charter Oak quarterback Vincent Farrar completed 12 of his 19 pass attempts for 97 yards.

Sam Mason had five catches for 40 yards and that included a fourth-quarter TD reception from Farrar.

Zakkarii Black was the Chargers workhorse.

The Charter Oak junior carried the ball 14 times for 40 yards.

Quotable:

Ayala senior, Drew Merrill: “We heard people saying that we could afford to lose this game and still make the playoffs, but we never go into any game where we don’t expect to win. We made some mistakes tonight, but we were satisfied with the outcome. (Heading into this game), we knew they (Charter Oak) had some athletes and that we had to contain them, and I think our defense played pretty well. I would like to get the ball more on offense, but at the end of the day, all I care is that we win football games, and I fully trust our coach’s game plan each week. As we go into the postseason, where one loss and you’re done, I would like to see us play a more complete game. If we’re playing our best football, I think we can compete with anyone.”

Box Score:
A: 14-7-13-6-(40)
CO: 0-0-0-14-(14)

Other Mountain West League Score:
Bonita 34, Alta Loma 2

Mountain West League Standings:
Ayala (9-1, 3-0)
Bonita (8-2, 2-1)
Alta Loma (7-3, 1-2)
Charter Oak (5-5, 0-3)

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Thanks to Randy Reams for the game info and stats