Charter Oak 13, Glendora 7
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Glendora fans were exited to see this one, arriving at the game more than two hours before the scheduled kickoff. The game ended up being a great one, with one tremendous play at the end to give Charter Oak a 13-7 win in front of a standing room only stadium that has seating for 4,500.
Both defense played great, but the Chargers just had more on offense, specifically RB Kaanan Snowden. A senior, he completed a 28-yard pass to WR Mikey Harrell with 22 seconds left to give Charter Oak the victory. Snowden also had 137 yards rushing and ran for one touchdown.
Before the game Glendora fans were out in full force in support of their team, latching on to a quote from a Covina coach who compared their team in size and speed to a junior college team, but that only fueled the Chargers’ fire. And Charter Oak didn’t need much motivation, this is a rivalry and they wanted to win the Mayor’s Trophy, but all the pregame talk did help to unify the team, quarterback Chris Allen said.
‘We all knew it was going to take the whole team, all 65 of us coming together... to become one giant team, one heartbeat, and we used that to our advantage and came out with a victory tonight,’ Allen said.
On to the GBU report...
The Good: That game-winning play. A halfback option that completely fooled everyone on Glendora’s defensive unit, especially corner back Reggie Young. After getting into Tartan territory with one minute left to play, Charter Oak ran the ball twice with Snowden. With 30 seconds left it looked as if they were going to do it a third time when Snowden began to back up and then threw the ball to a wide open Harrell, who almost tripped short of the end zone but dove in for the score.
‘He bit hard,’ Snowden said of Young. ‘I didn’t see anybody back there. I tossed it up and he was wide open. It was right there, perfect.’
Chargers Coach Lou Farrar said they almost used the play in the first half, but that he told his offensive coordinator, who is also his son, to save it for later. ‘In case, you know,’ Farrar said. ‘We didn’t know how the game was going. We were getting real lucky with field position. But we have a good athlete and our job is to put the ball in the hands of our best athlete in a tough situation.’
Without a doubt Snowden was the player of the game. He also had a pass deflection on third down to force Glendora to attempt a field goal the series before the Chargers’ last. Glendora missed and Charter Oak went on to win the game.
The Bad: Not much bad, but I guess the pregame hype. I understand that parents were just supporting their kids, and there is nothing wrong with that, but it was bulletin-board material. Not only did it not help Glendora’s players, it surely motivated their opponents. ‘It’s good for our kids, they needed a little humility,’ said Glendora Coach Mark Pasquarella. ‘They need to be better and we need to practice better and work harder. Hopefully, that’s what our kids will respond to and do.’
The Ugly: I knew that when I came up with this concept that there would be times when I would be at a game and nothing would be ugly. This was one of those games. This was a wonderful high school football game, one that both teams should be proud of. The SGV did itself proud here.
For those of you concerned about Glendora’s Brent Marteney’s well-being, keep your prayers coming. Marteney (No. 20) went down during the second half’s opening kickoff. The game was halted for a couple of minutes while he was carried off and taken away in an ambulance. Pasquarella said it doesn’t look good. ‘It looks like he tore a ligament in his knee. It looks pretty bad, so it looks like it could be pretty significant.’
Last week Bonita’s Jiovanni Mier was ruled out for the season with what appeared to be a neck injury, but that was not the case. Hopefully, Marteney will have a similar experience.
- Jaime Cardenas