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Los Amigos Coach Melo Guess talks to his players after Thursday’s loss. (PHOTO: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
A memorable season for the Los Amigos High School football team came to an abrupt halt Thursday night when the Lobos lost to a fired-up El Rancho team 40-20 in the quarterfinal round of the CIF Division 11 playoffs at Garden Grove.
Los Amigos had won 11 in a row, captured the Sigma League title and had its sights set on reaching the CIF finals after going 10-0 in the regular season for the first time in school history. However, El Rancho (8-4) was able to execute a solid game plan while Los Amigos was victimized by three turnovers (two fumbles and an interception), costly penalties and missed scoring opportunities.
“Our goal was a CIF title and ultimately that falls on me,” said Los Amigos Coach Melo Guess. “I’m proud of this group of boys and the season they had and they left it on the field and they embody everything I am as a coach as far as the hard work, the discipline, the integrity, character matters and they showed that today, and for that, I’m proud of them.
“Myself and the coaching staff, we got to be better, it starts and ends with me. I’m a firm believer in that and I got to do better for these dudes.”
The first half remained close. El Rancho moved ahead 21-20 on a 34-yard TD run by quarterback Ryan Dominguez with 5:23 left in the first half.
Los Amigos had a chance to take the lead late in the first half. First the Lobos missed a 38-yard field. But the Lobos got another shot when El Rancho was called for a roughing the kicker penalty. However, El Rancho blocked the second field goal attempt and went into the locker-room with a one-point lead.
“Not our best day,” Guess said. “It’s hard to stay perfect, it’s something you think about, you win and in life period, it’s hard to get perfect grades, it’s hard to get a perfect score. You hope those things don’t creep in and get you this time of year. But we hadn’t turned over the ball more than one turnover all year and tonight we had three or four, which is uncharacteristic of us.
“Trying to go 14-0 is hard, unfortunately a little bit of our luck ran out tonight and we turn the page, as a coach, I just got to better and I will do better. I got to do a better job of preparing our boys to play four quarters, because they played a great first half offensively and I’m the offensive coordinator and you got to put two halves together, that’s the game of football and unfortunately they did that and we didn’t and the score reflected that.”
El Rancho was able to limit Los Amigos offensively in the second half and moved ahead 29-20 when Diego Diaz scored on a 3-yard TD run late in the third quarter. The Dons also converted a two-point conversion.
Phoenix Navarro ran in from 9 yards out to put the Dons ahead 37-20 with the two-point conversion. Joshua Campos connected on a 24-yard field goal late in the game to make it 40-20.
Raul Cruz provided a spark in the first half for Los Amigos with had a 46-yard touchdown run to put Los Amigos ahead 20-14 with 5:46 left in the second quarter. Quarterback Adrian Ramirez had a 1-yard TD run and Isaac Galindo had a 20-yard TD run for the Lobos other scores in the first half.
Cruz rushed for 74 yards on six carries, Ramirez rushed for 75 yards on 14 carries and passed for 105 yards and Galindo rushed for 49 yards on 14 carries.
Dominguez, the El Rancho quarterback, passed for 120 yards and threw touchdown passes to Giovani Montenegro and Navarro. Navarro also rushed for 85 yards.
Guess met with his players after the game and told them he was “proud to be a Lobo.”
Cruz was happy to get the first half touchdown and said the season was special.
“Honestly I give all things to my line,” said Cruz, a senior. “All my teammates are amazing, I can’t just say it’s me, I love all my brothers and they all play a part and the season has been amazing, it’s been all of us, we’ve been working and working, it’s all just a team effort. I just can’t wait to see what Los Amigos does in the future.
“At the beginning of the season, our goal was never to go 10-0. Our goal was to make it as far as we could, it was just all of us working together, it was a blessing, we went game by game and never looked ahead, we always looked at our next opponent. Everyone put in work.”
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
