Orange League : Pallares, Valencia Run Over Brea, 31-0
Nicknames are a big part of football at every level--the “Doomsday Defense” of the Dallas Cowboys, the “Purple People Eaters” of the Minnesota Vikings.
El Modena High School is known as the “Quack Attack” and at Mission Viejo they give out stickers of dead cockroaches to players who make particularly hard hits.
At Brea-Olinda, they favor “911,” a label for its defense, which is inspired by a giant sign that reads 911 in their end zone. In an emergency, dial 911.
Ray Pallares and some of his friends from Valencia paid a call to the Brea defense Friday night and left Brea in position to call its emergency number, as the Tigers rolled over the Wildcats, 31-0 in Orange League action.
Valencia scored early and often and never was headed in raising its record to 3-1 in league play and 7-2 overall.
Actually, the evening belong to his friends as much as it did the celebrated Pallares, Orange County’s all-time leading rusher, who ran for 150 yards on 24 carries.
That total moved Pallares into fourth place on the all-time CIF-Southern Section rushing list, passing Aaron Emanuel of Quartz Hill.
“There’s not much more you can say about Ray,” Valencia Coach Mike Marrujo said. “He played his usual consistent game for us.”
Pallares is a punishing runner, often giving out as many hits as he takes. Several times against Brea, he left tacklers who had clear shots at him in his wake, simply butting heads with whoever got in his way.
On Pallares’ only touchdown of the night, a 6-yard run in the fourth quarter, three defenders met Pallares just past the line of scrimmage and he escorted them into the end zone.
Pallares notwithstanding, Valencia displayed a versatile offense that showed it is not as dependent on its great rusher as it might otherwise seem. Jeff Martinez is an accurate passer, Andy Ruscitto a fine receiver, and halfback Dorian Estes can turn the corner on a sweep as well as anybody in his league.
Dominating play on both sides of the line, the Tigers’ effort was not lost on Marrujo.
“We really played well,” he said. “We worked hard in practice this week and that showed tonight. Traditionally, Brea and Western have always been the toughest league games for us.”
Beaten by Western a week ago, 18-15, the Tigers rebounded with a better effort Friday, holding the Wildcats to 101 yards offense, including only 12 passing.
Valencia’s offense, meanwhile, did pretty much whatever it wanted to against the Wildcats.
The Tigers opened the scoring with on a 6-play, 63-yard drive early in the first quarter, with Martinez sneaking over from the one for the touchdown. A 22-yard pass down to the 1-yard line from Martinez to Ruscitto set up the scoring run.
A 33-yard field goal by Bryan Elliott upped the score to 10-0 in the second quarter, and on Brea’s next series of downs, Valencia tackle Shawn Racobs recovered a fumble and the Tigers took over at Brea’s 18-yard line.
This time, it took only three plays to score. Martinez hit flanker Matt Pinckney with a 10-yard curl pass, but two Brea defenders lunged for the ball and overran the receiver.
Pinckney turned around and walked into the end zone for the scoring, making it 17-0.
Martinez threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jay Van Gorden with 14 seconds to play in the second quarter to give the Tigers’ a 24-0 halftime lead.
In other action:
Magnolia 10, Anaheim 6--James Hargis scored on a 32-yard touchdown run and Kirk Hainline hit a 25-yard field goal to lead the Sentinels to the win at home.