Cloverdale preparing to host Stellar Prep this Friday
The varsity football Eagles didn’t waste any time logging their first win of the 2017 campaign, using a strong second-half effort to slip past visiting Berean Christian last Friday, 14-7.
The season-opening victory went a long way to avenge an embarrassing 48-0 shellacking at the hands of the same opponent last season, and is perhaps a harbinger of good things to come.
“A lot has changed since last year,” CHS head coach Chad Talley said. “Our understanding of schemes is a lot better now. Even though our offensive execution wasn’t quite where we wanted it to be on Friday, the biggest thing was we had good discipline on defense.”
The Eagles (1-0) had about 48 hours to savor the win before going back to work in preparation for their Friday, Sept. 1 clash with visiting Stellar Prep of Oakland. The Thunder will no doubt be hungry this week after dropping an 8-0 decision to Kelseyville in their season opener on Aug. 25.
“Their defense is a lot like ours,” Talley noted. “They have a lot of good athletes and some big kids but I think our effort is going to be the difference in the game.”
Eagles soar in second half
Friday’s meeting against Berean Christian began as a chess match of sorts, with each team using a good defensive effort to probe for weakness in a scoreless first half.
The action picked up in an exciting third quarter, as Eagles’ senior quarterback James Wirt engineered a touchdown drive resulting in a scoring jaunt from junior running back Cesar Buenrostro. The PAT kick failed and the Eagles led 6-0. Berean Christian answered the score later in the period to grab a 7-6 lead at the end of three.
Still trailing by a point, Cloverdale mounted the winning march in the fourth quarter when Buenrostro found paydirt on his second touchdown of the night, this one followed by a successful two-point conversion pass from Wirt to Christian Chavez for a seven point lead. The Eagles’ defensive unit hung tough in for the waning minutes to preserve a 14-7 victory.
“We preach the two E’s, effort and execution,” Talley said. “The effort was definitely there and there was no quit in our guys. This group really gets it,” he added.
Wirt (6-13, 103 yards passing, 10-33 yards rushing) finished up a solid night under center, while other top offensive performers included Buenrostro (17-60 yards rushing, 2 TDs, 1-28 yards receiving), BJ Grady (5-19 yards rushing), Chavez (4-40 yards receiving) and Shane Scalese (2-4 yards rushing).
Leading tacklers included Wirt (7), Grady (6), Scalese (6), John Wesele (5), William Foley (5), Buenrostro (5), Chavez (3), Ray Sayago (3), Mel Alonso (2), Alex Segobiano (2) and one tackle apiece from Jesus Silva, Ross Sceales and Eli Arreola.
JV scores win
The Cloverdale JV squad (1-0) made it a clean sweep on Friday, running roughshod over Berean Christian, 27-8.
