Pictured L-R: Jonathan Guerrero & Gio Ortega
Football:
The magical run is over.
But not before Rio Hondo Prep put together a remarkable 2021 season.
On Friday night, St. Pius X-St. Mathias, held off the Kares, 34-20, in the quarterfinal round of the CIF-SS Division 7 playoffs.
The Warriors made an early statement, scoring on the first offensive play of the game, as Nate Frazier took a Jordan Shaw pass 70 yards for the score.
RHP would answer back on their first drive, capped by a 1-yard Jonathan Guerrero TD run.
Rio Hondo Prep then attempted and recovered their onside kick.
Guerrero would give the Kares a 14-7 lead, when he rumbled in from two yards out just halfway through the first quarter.
Unfortunately, St. Pius would score the next three TD’s and four out of the final five to end RHP’s season.
Ryan McCulloch had a 10-yard TD run in the fourth quarter with 10:50 to play and got Rio Hondo Prep to within 27-20.
But Jason Robinson’s 20-yard TD catch from Dieter Barr with 4:38 to play put the game away.
The Kares actually finished with a 372-296 advantage in total yards, including a 318-77 edge on the ground.
Last week, RHP had the ball 20 minutes longer than Charter Oak, but on Friday, the Warriors had the ball for 25:02, while RHP possession for 22:56.
Dieter Barr completed 13 of his 21 pass attempts for 149 yards and two TD’s for St. Pius.
The Warriors passing game out-dueled RHP by a margin of 219-54.
Jonathan Guerrero, whose first start came back in the fourth week of his sophomore season when he replaced an injured Bryant Flores, began and ended incredibly.
Back then, Guerrero rushed for 270 yards and three scores in a 42-0 victory over Arroyo.
And for his encore, the Kares senior captain closed out his high school career with 196 yards rushing on 25 carries, and those two TD runs.
Ryan McCulloch had 108 yards on 11 carries, and the one score.
The RHP junior is going to be one of the area’s most exciting players to watch next season, and that includes on both sides of the ball.
For the first time in more than a month, an RHP opponent kept the incredible Gio Ortega out of the end zone.
But Ortega rushed for 22 yards on six carries, completed a pass for 25 yards, caught a 20-yard pass, had four tackles on defense and made two of his three extra-point attempts.
Calvin Johnson had 5.5 tackles to lead RHP and Jayden Sanchez totaled 4.5 tackles.
Ryan McCulloch and Paul Alena had four tackles apiece for the Kares.
Quotable:
RHP coach, Mark Carson: “Our guys fought like the warriors they are. We couldn’t be more proud of them for how they played last night and all season. It’s such a great group of young men. In the old CIF set up, this is a championship team. It’s important for our guys to focus on the awesome journey they took together and not just the loss. In time, they will, and that’s the most important part of all this.”
Box Score:
SP: 7-13-7-7-(34)
RHP: 14-0-0-6-(20)
Scoring:
SP: Nate Frazier 70 pass from Jordan Shaw (Eric Zavala kick)
RHP: Jonathan Guerrero 1 run (Gio Ortega kick)
RHP: Jonathan Guerrero 2 run (Gio Ortega kick)
SP: Christian Harris 2 run (Eric Zavala kick)
SP: Jordan Shaw 20 pass from Dieter Barr (Eric Zavala kick)
SP: Jason Robinson 4 run (Eric Zavala kick)
RHP: Ryan McCulloch 10 run (kick failed)
SP: Jason Robinson 20 pass from Dieter Barr (Eric Zavala kick)
Records: St. Pius (10-2); Rio Hondo Prep (10-2)
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