MONARCHS GIVE CENTURIONS TASTE OF DÉJÀ VU

By David Dickens
Updated: August 25, 2018

2018 EAST COUNTY PREP FOOTBALL

MONTE VISTA 48, UNIVERSITY CITY 20

By Dave Dickens

EastCountySports.com

SPRING VALLEY (8-24-2018) – University City and Monte Vista have had quite the battles the last three times they’ve squared off.

The Monarchs won the last chess match in the SDCIF playoffs after a heartbreaking defeat in the regular season.

Social media has been quite the platform for these young athletes to rattle off who is going to walk the walk when game day comes under the lights. These two teams have become somewhat of a rival.

With a nice cool breeze blowing in with cooler – close to football – weather for a Southern California football game, the fans were buckled in and ready to cheer for their hometown squad.

As the Monarchs received the opening kickoff, JEVON BROOKS almost took it to the house on a big, 65-yard return.

That particular play would set the tone for the Monarch offense for the remainder.

Two plays later, that’s right, the big man, JAHMON MCCLENDON, burrowed his way into the end zone on a 2 -yard blast. Kicker JASON HERNANDEZ added the extra point for an early, 7-0 Monarch lead.

For the visiting Centurions, they would dink and dunk their way to midfield, but after a fumbled, but recovered snap and a few broken plays, were forced to turn it over on downs.

There was a lot of shoving and talking from the visiting team on the field, however, once Monte Vista scored eight plays later on a 10-yard scamper by McClendon, and an extra point, the shoving and jawing would cease. The Monarchs now led 14-0 and little time remaining in the first quarter.

Seven plays later, the Centurions were on the board for six on a laser from quarterback GUNNAR GRAY to TARIQ JEFFERSON for a 20-yard touchdown and a successful two-point conversion from Gray to BEN BRUCE, 14-8 Monarchs.

Monte Vista would score on their next two possessions, scoring on all four of their initial possessions and leading 21-8 with 21 seconds left in the first quarter of play. There was no answer for McClendon and the Monte Vista ground assault.

“My offensive line was working really hard for me tonight,” said McClendon. “We have all just been working on everything and this is a good year for the team,” McClendon said.

The Monarchs would allow 20 points total, however, both teams were fatigued with so many players going both ways.

“It’s a lot of fun to coach these seniors and watch them play on a Friday night,” said Hamamoto.

“We are gonna take it slowly, keep feeding our backs the rock and make people stop us. If they stop us we will be forced to throw it more often,” Hamamoto continued.

Monte Vista finished off the Centurions, 48-20, and it was the second game in a row they put up 40 or more points on this young season.

Up next for the Monarchs, a third home game in-a-row, starting the TOUCHDOWNS AGAINST CANCER games, and facing an all-too-familiar Patrick Henry team that handed the Monarchs a loss last year.