Panthers take down the Hawks
By John Earp
The Panther Varsity Football Team (2-3) lined up against the Centennial Hawks JV Team (0-1) last Friday for the 2024 Homecoming Game. The game started out slowly, with not much happening in the first several minutes. Sebastian Arroyo caught a long pass down the middle with 7:52 remaining in the first quarter, giving the Panthers their best field position of the game to that point, on their opponents’ 24-yard line. Daniel Ornelas ran a quarterback keeper up the middle for a touchdown from the 18-yard line with 6:59 remaining. Point after was good. Jal led 7-0.
On the Panthers’ next possession, Arroyo caught a pass over the middle to put the ball on the Panther 37-yard line. On the next play, with just over three minutes remaining in the first quarter, Arroyo caught another pass over the middle and ran it into the end zone from the 48-yard line. Point after by Andre Rodriguez was successful. Panthers led 14-0. The Hawks’ quarterback pushed the ball over the goal line on their next drive with 9:31 remaining in the second quarter. Point after was good. Panthers led 14-7.
On the next Panther offensive drive, Nolbert Cervantes caught a pass and ran it to the 48-yard line for a Panther first down. Andre Rodriguez then ran the ball for 11, gaining another first down. Andre Rodriguez caught a pass in the flat and ran it for yet another first down in the Hawks’ 21-yard line. Ornelas then ran a quarterback keeper up the middle for a first down on the 11. Cervantes then ran the ball in for a touchdown with 6:30 remaining in the half. Two-point conversion turned out to be an incomplete pass. Jal led 20-7. The Hawks were not going to be counted out just yet though. With 3:22 remaining in the half, the quarterback kept the ball and was able to score a touchdown from the three-yard line. Extra point was good. Jal led 20-14.
On the Panthers’ next offensive drive, Nolbert Cervantes took a handoff and ran it through defenders for a huge gain down to the Hawks’ 22-yard line. Sebastian Arroyo caught a 24-yard pass in the end zone. Two-point conversion was unsuccessful. Jal led 26-14 with 52 seconds remaining in the first half.
The Hawks kicked off to the Panthers at the start of the second half. At the end of a successful offensive drive, Nolbert Cervantes caught a 30-yard pass from Ornelas just inside the end zone for six. Two-point conversion was successful. With 9:56 left in the third quarter, the Panthers led 34-14. On the ensuing drive by the Hawks, Cervantes intercepted a pass and ran it in for a 32-yard touchdown. Two-point conversion was not successful. Jal led 40-14 with 8:20 remaining in the third quarter.
Chris Baxter sacked the Centennial quarterback with 6:20 remaining in the third quarter. Coby Vargas caught a pass from Ornelas with 4:21 remaining in the third quarter for a first down on the Jal 38-yard line. Sebastian Arroyo then caught a pass and grounded out a 13-yard gain for the Panthers. Zadyn Lujan took the ball up the middle for a gain of six, followed by another first down on the Hawks’ 20-yard line. Andre Rodriguez took the ball into the end zone with a five-yard run, completing the drive. Extra point was good. Jal led 47-21 with 44 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Baxter sacked the Hawks’ quarterback for another big loss with 5:45 left in the game, resulting in a second and 15 situation for Centennial. Cash Taylor broke through for a big sack with a little over four minutes remaining in the game. Nolbert Cervantes intercepted the ball near the end zone and ran it back to the 47-yard line with about 2:30 remaining in the game. The pace of the game stalled in the fourth quarter, with neither team making much progress. The final score was 47-28 with a solid homecoming win for the Panthers.
Ornelas averaged 20.1 yards passing, completing 14 out of 25 attempts for a total of 282 yards. Zadyn Lujan gained 33 yards rushing with five carries for an average of 6.6 yards per carry. Andre Rodriguez gained 91 yards rushing with 15 carries for an average of 6.1 yards per carry. Daniel Ornelas gained 31 yards rushing on eight carries for an average of 3.9 yards per carry. Sebastian Arroyo gained 124 yards receiving on five receptions for an average of 24.8 yards per carry. Coby Vargas gained 35 yards on one carry. Andre Rodriguez gained 26 yards on three receptions for an average of 8.7 yards per carry. Ornelas excelled especially in passing Friday night, with 282 total yards passing in addition to his 31 yards rushing.
On defense, David Gaytan had 4 tackles and 17 assists, Joel Nieto had 5 tackles and 2 assists, Ornelas had 4 tackles with 2 assists, Coby Vargas had 2 tackles and 2 assists, TJ Davis and Jose Valenzuela each had 2 tackles, while Baxter had 3 tackles and 1 assist. Cash Taylor had one sack, while Chris Baxter had two. Ornelas and Gaytan each recovered a fumble in the game. Andre Rodriguez scored 3 out of 5 point-after attempts.
The Panthers looked the best they have this season last Friday night, with both their passing and running game coming together well, and their defensive game looking good as well. They have a bye this week, and will square off against Tularosa (3-2) at home on Friday October 4th, their first district game of the season.
