Drive Keeps El Dorado Unbeaten

As flat as their coach’s hairdo for the first three quarters, El Dorado finally rallied Friday night to remain unbeaten.

Senior running back Ron DeBartolomeis scored on a three-yard run with three minutes 39 seconds left and Alex Molnar kicked the extra point to give the Golden Hawks a 7-6 nonleague victory over Brea-Olinda in front of 2,000 at Valencia High.

The comeback by El Dorado (5-0) and an impressive 80-yard drive engineered by quarterback Jim Beck had Coach Rick Jones singing the praises of his team.

“This team has so much character to come back on a night when we were out of sync,” said Jones, who sports a flat-top. “One of our biggest expectations is to never give up. This was a great game to learn that.”

The Golden Hawks almost learned the hard way.

Brea (2-3) played El Dorado rough and tough all night. The Wildcats scored on a two-yard run by running back Sean Bickel with 7:18 to play in the second quarter, but messed up the conversion with a bad snap that Wildcat quarterback Paul Chiotti, the holder on the kick, unsuccessfully tried to save with a desperate run.

The Wildcats kept pressuring El Dorado and had a few other opportunities to score, but couldn’t capitalize.

Early in the third quarter, Brea marched to the El Dorado 13-yard line before linebacker Randy Roy recovered a fumble by running back Scott Hester. In the fourth quarter, Brea advanced to the El Dorado 17-yard line, where the drive stalled and Jesse Anderson missed a 34-yard field goal attempt.

El Dorado, however, didn’t waste its chance in the final period.

Beck, who passed for 181 yards, drove the Golden Hawks from their own 20-yard line to the winning score in 10 plays.

He made several key completions on the drive, including pass plays of 26 and 15 yards to tight end Kevin Haynes.

DeBartolomeis picked up all of his team-high 41 rushing yards in the second half after replacing fullback Spencer Frost, who sat out the last two quarters because of an ankle injury. Bickel led all rushers with 68 yards in 19 carries.