Los Amigos football finds its identity in win over Estancia
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Los Amigos figured itself out Friday night, put together its best quarter and a half of football all season, and strode, finally and emotionally, into CIF Southern Section playoff contention.
The Lobos, mostly healthy, let their offensive line lead the charge to end an injury-tinged, three-game losing streak with a 21-14 triumph in the final seconds at Estancia.
They then celebrated with head coach Romel “Melo” Guess, watching on his phone from a hospital bed.
The Lobos’ up-the-gut run game, mostly utilizing Kevin Centeno, ground out 147 yards and three touchdowns in the last 13 minutes, more than three quarters of the clock with the ball in their hands. Los Amigos (4-4, 1-2 in the Sigma League) survived with a last-play, red-zone stop.
“We’ve been looking for our identity, and I think we found it,” said assistant coach Charles Galbreath, who took charge when Guess checked in for a planned surgery Thursday related to the intestinal rupture that sidelined him for the start of preseason work. “It’s behind the hogs up front. We live and die by them. Los Amigos, as long as I’ve coached there, that’s been what we do, and then the backs go and grind it out.”
Centeno carried 31 times for 150 yards and two touchdowns, and Villa Park transfer Jayvone Morgan added 57 yards on 13 rushes behind an experienced crew up front: center Bryant Merida, right tackle Aaron Barba, left tackle Jesus Contreras, right guard Luis Miramontes and left guard Fabian Montero.
“Those are the five guys that coming in, we felt, ‘Hey, that’s going to be our identity, that’s where we’re going to surge, and teams are going to have to deal with that,’” Galbreath said. “Those guys have been starting for three years, a majority of them, and so it’s, like, we were waiting for this game to finally click.”
That approach led to league championships the past three seasons, two shared in the Garden Grove League and last year’s inaugural Sigma League title, but Los Amigos got lost a little as newcomers nearly everywhere except the offensive line built experience. Injuries as league play began to Merida, the offensive line’s leader, star receiver Amari’e Maddox, and quarterback Trell Smith amplified things, but Merida’s return after Maddox’s and Smith’s a week earlier revived the Lobos.
It took nearly three quarters to take effect. The game until then had been a parade of punts surrounding a shanked Los Amigos field-goal attempt midway through the second quarter and one moment of brilliant clarity — Bennett Molica turning a short Kai Bargas toss over the middle into a 49-yard touchdown — that gave Estancia (5-3, 1-2) the advantage not quite two minutes before the break.
Los Amigos caught up after the ball was stripped from Brandon Bettinghausen on a punt return, with Diego Juarez recovering at the Eagles’ 25-yard line. The Lobos were unstoppable the rest of the way.
Centeno, mostly charging up the middle, ran for 99 of his yards from that point. He carried four times and scored from the 1-yard line to make it 7-7, then covered 38 yards on six runs to set up Smith’s 1-yard, go-ahead touchdown on a seven-minute, 15-play possession.
Estancia responded with its lone extended drive to make it 14-14. A pass-interference penalty and two 11-yard gains — Bargas to Bettinghausen and a Jeff Brown run — led to Juan Silva’s 23-yard, third-and-10 touchdown reception with 2:28 to go.
It was all Centeno and Morgan from there. Nine runs up the middle — three successive carries by Centeno, then three by Morgan, and another three by Centeno — covered 80 yards, the last, from the 3-yard line, with 25.2 seconds left.
“[It says] that we have the biggest and baddest linemen in the league,” Centeno said. “If we play with all of us together, no one’s going to be able to stop us.”
Galbreath put it all “on the back of the hogs and those running backs.”
“Those guys are dog-tired. The other side’s dog-tired. They stood in there the whole game,” he said. “And once you start the momentum, inertia starts going. When you get momentum on your side a little bit, it felt like we were kind of sledding downhill, which was nice. Because a lot of this season has been us pulling the sled and some boulders up a hill.
“Once that started rocking and rolling, we kind of felt confident and said, ‘You know, keep running it. They’ve got to stop us.’ And our boys did a great job of making sure that that didn’t happen.”
Estancia’s last-seconds bid to force overtime came close. Bargas hit Sean Sweeney for 24 yards and Nolan Piesik for 21 yards to get to the Lobos’ 13-yard line with 2.6 seconds left. His last throw fell incomplete.
“We just had breakdowns,” Estancia head coach Mike Bargas said. “And you can’t win games when you have breakdowns.”
The teams are tied for fourth, behind Santa Ana Calvary Chapel (8-0, 3-0), Ocean View (6-2, 2-1) and Rancho Alamitos (5-3, 2-1), and the top three are guaranteed playoff berths. Los Amigos is home next week against Santa Ana Valley (0-7-1, 0-3) and closes at Calvary Chapel. Estancia plays at Ocean View and Santa Ana Valley.
Sigma League
Los Amigos 21, Estancia 7
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Los Amigos 0 - 0 - 7 - 14 — 21
Estancia 0 - 7 - 0 - 7 — 14
FIRST QUARTER
None.
SECOND QUARTER
E — Molica 49 pass from Bargas (Johner kick), 1:42.
THIRD QUARTER
LA — Centeno 1 run (Aviles kick), 1:02.
FOURTH QUARTER
LA — Smith 1 run (Aviles kick), 4:55.
E — Silva 23 pass from Bargas (Johner kick), 2:28.
LA — Centeno 3 run (Aviles kick), 0:25.2.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
LA — Centeno, 31-150, 2 TDs; Morgan, 13-57; Smith, 5-17, 1 TD; Maddox, 4-15.
E — J. Brown, 12-32; Bettinghausen, 1-5.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
LA — Smith, 7-11-0, 82.
E — Bargas, 12-24-0, 183, 2 TDs.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
LA — Maddox, 4-63; Morgan, 2-6; Espinoza, 1-13.
E — Molica, 4-73, 1 TD; Silva, 2-36, 1 TD; Sweeney, 2-26; Piesik, 1-21; Bettinghausen, 2-17; Johner, 1-10.
