Glendale football returns to league action, falls to Arcadia
GLENDALE — The Glendale High football team had a week off to regroup and refocus before its Pacific League game against Arcadia at Moyse Field on Thursday.
After the Nitros forfeited their league game against Muir last week, Glendale returned to the field, and although still not at full strength, took on the Apaches in hopes of bouncing back from the injury bug.
However, early turnovers and bad snaps plagued the Nitros, and Arcadia took full advantage as the Apaches scored seven unanswered touchdowns to down host Glendale, 46-7.
“I was just telling the players they don’t realize how close they are, but they just have to hold on to the ball,” Glendale coach Cary Harris said.”If you don’t hold on to the football, the chances of winning the game is really unlikely.”
Glendale (1-6, 0-3 in league) lost its sixth straight after starting the season with an 11-6 victory in a nonleague contest against Mendez.
“We’re keeping them positive,” Harris said. “We’re keeping them encouraged. We have a young group of sophomores and juniors. The good thing about that is 90 % of these guys are coming back next year with a full year of experience playing varsity football, so we have to use that as motivation and use these losses to motivate us for next week.”
Glendale running back Dennis Perez carried the ball 11 times for 64 yards and scored the Nitros’ lone touchdown.
“We just kept trying,” Perez said. “We didn’t want to give up. There was still a whole other half to play. I was just mad that we were losing and I just put my head down and ran over whoever I saw.”
Perez got the Nitros on the board on a seven-yard run with 1:15 remaining in the game. The sophomore ran all three plays for 44 yards on the drive with a pair of Apaches personal fouls contributing to the Nitros matriculation the field.
Arcadia quarterback Michael Hillier threw three touchdown passes for 166 yards on nine-of-17 passing and carried seven times for 70 yards and two touchdowns. Apaches receiver Ty Cavallero finished with four catches for 66 yards and a touchdown as well as an interception returned for an 85-yard score.
“We played OK,” said Arcadia coach Andrew Policky , a former coach at Hoover. “We’re not physical enough on both sides right now and that’s been the story of the year so far.
Arcadia (3-3, 1-1) opened up the game with a three-play touchdown drive capped on a 45-yard reception from Cavallero at the 10:35 mark.
A Glendale fumble with 5:28 left in the first quarter dropped the ball back from the Arcadia 48 to the Nitros’ 45 and the ensuing Apaches drive took 10 plays to score a one-yard quarterback keeper for a 13-0 lead with 1:32 remaining.
On the next Glendale possession, Nitros quarterback Juan Estrada fumbled a snap and Arcadia took over on the host’s 28-yard line. The Apaches scored on the next play on a 28-yard pass to Chris Wilson for a 20-0 lead with 1:12 left in the opening quarter.
The Glendale offense started gaining momentum in the second quarter as the Nitros finally picked up positive yardage. But their 39-yard drive at the start of the quarter ended with a turnover on downs on the Arcadia 41 with 9:21 left.
Glendale marched 50 yards on its next drive, but saw its possession come up short on the Arcadia 9-yard line with another turnover on downs with 2:40 left in the half.
After the Nitros’ third turnover on downs of the quarter, the Apaches scored on a 55-yard touchdown pass from Eudene Corletto on the first play of their possession to lead, 27-0, at the half.
Arcadia scored on a 26-yard quarterback run in the third quarter to take a 34-0 lead at the 8:47 mark and added another score with a two-yard run with 6:54 remaining in the game.
With 5:32 left, Cavallero intercepted an Estrada pass and returned it for an 85-yard touchdown to extend the Arcadia lead to 46-0.