On Friday, Aug. 23, the Rancho Cucamonga High School varsity football team went to battle against the Murrieta Valley Nighthawks in the Cougar Stadium. Rancho finished the game with a loss of 35-19 to Murrieta Valley.
The Nighthawks were up by 14 points with 3 minutes left in the first quarter when Rancho had the first touchdown reception made by number 11, senior Cameron Sermons. With under a minute left in the second quarter, junior quarterback Jacob Chambers made a 73-yard pass which resulted in the second Cougar touchdown of the game, bringing the score to 14-12. The field goal was good and made the score 14-13, with the Cougars trailing the Nighthawks by only one point at halftime. The Nighthawks maintained the lead over Rancho throughout the first half.
The game started slipping away during the second half as the Nighthawks went on to score on three of their four drives during the second, half while limiting Rancho to only one successful drive into the endzone. This kept the Cougars at 19 total points, resulting in a 35-19 loss for the Cougars’ first football game of the season.
“It was a lot of ups and downs,” wide receiver Wavie Alloway said. “We started off at the first half good and then we went into the second half terribly.”
Last season, the Cougars faced the Murrieta Valley Nighthawks twice. The Cougars first defeated the Nighthawks on Aug. 18, 2023, 29-27. However, in the second match of the 2023 season, the Nighthawks defeated the Cougars on Nov. 10, 2023, 53-52 with two overtimes.
Rancho Cucamonga is gearing up for the rest of the season day by day to, according to the team, hopefully become baseline league and CIF Champions.
“We have a gauntlet of a schedule,” defensive line Coach Bo Dauser said.
The Rancho Cucamonga Cougars are going into their next game 0-1 and are looking to pick up their first win vs Orange Lutheran in the Cougar Stadium on Friday, Aug. 30.
Adam Abdelaliem • Sep 11, 2024 at 9:41 am
good luck next game 🙂