Former Sunkist league champs Summit Skyhawks clashed against reigning Sunkist league champs Grand Terrace Titans for what hopes to be a back and forth 4 quarters of play. Grand Terrace took down Summit last year to win their first Sunkist league title in school history. Well, the Summit Skyhawks players didn’t take that lightly as they will want their revenge with a win to make Grand Terrace’s hopes for repeating as Sunkist league champs to fade away.
Each team had a goal set for winning Friday’s game:
Grand Terrace Titans: Defense will need to step up and stop the run because of Summit’s rushing duo attack, makes up their whole offensive yardage.
Summit Skyhawks: They need to stop Grand Terrace pass happy offense by pressuring the QB and keeping him in the pocket.
Grand Terrace started the game with 3 first down passes and got to the red-zone after a 40-yard catch and run by Corey Young #18. A quick pass to Lonzel Bradford #13 puts the corner in a spin cycle then sprinted to the right side of the end-zone outrunning the whole defense for a highlight 21-yard receiving touchdown to finish the first drive.
Summit was forced to punt deep in their territory but the snap went over the punters head for a safety making the lead 8-0 and giving Grand Terrace the ball.
Grand Terrace passed the ball and took advantage of the cornerbacks playing off and got a 30-yard pass to Carlos Morales #7. Mekhi Lewis #12 went through all his reads and saw nothing open and was able to run out the pocket to sprint to the pylon untouched for the 9-yard rushing touchdown.
Summit Skyhawks had continuously tried to run the ball but David Gusta #60 of Grand Terrace is in the backfield every play gaining 4 tackles for loss in the first two drives. Ending the drive with a punt.
Grand Terrace’s Lewis #12 rolled out the pocket and threw a dime to Dominic Balderrama #19 then he got tackled down at Summit’s 27- yard line for a 43-yard play. Grand Terrace with a confident running game this week gave it to Anthony Valencia #33 on third down as he bulldozed over 3 defenders at once and kept churning his legs to break lose to run it in for a beast mode 13-yard touchdown.
Grand Terrace started the drive on Summit’s 31, on the first play Lewis #12 threw an easy touchdown pass to Balderrama #19 snatched the ball in the end-zone. GT had a shutout going on Summit 27-0 with 3 minutes to play before Halftime.
Summit got two first downs after two penalties then ran a screen pass that was tipped than intercepted by Troy Steptoe #27 of GT made a big play to end the drive. Going into halftime Billy Mixon, Running Backs coach- had this to say about GT performance going into halftime, “We spread everything equally as far as running the ball and passing the ball, in the second half we want to mix it up again and keep everyone off balance.”
Summit came out of halftime making a statement playing aggressive getting a 35-yard kickoff return. Josha Hornsby #17 broke off a 38-yard run down to the GT 12-yard line. Nate Ellison #2 finished the drive with a 3-yard touchdown run untouched. 2-point conversion good by Ellison #2.
Grand Terrace Lewis #12 threw a first down to Young #18 to start the drive in the fourth quarter. Lewis #12 tried to run away from the defensive pressure but got sacked and forced to punt, Kyle Waldon #16 punted the ball.
Summit Skyhawks scored on a 1 yard QB sneak by Robert Eggleston #10 to put some points on the board to end the game 27-15 as Grand Terrace secured the win to become (4-0) and one game closer to being Sunkist League champs but have a battle next week against Kaiser (4-0) for the Sunkist League title. After the game when I ask the Defensive line coach – Mario Martinez about the game he said, “The defensive line did a good job at stopping the running and passing offense”