Football Team is Back on Track
By Jacob H. Pollon
Sierra Canyon Athletics Dept.
Staff Writer
SANTA FE SPRINGS — It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t clean. It wasn’t crisp.
However, Sierra Canyon coach Jon Ellinghouse might have said it best; “We’ll take the win and move on to next week.”
The Trailblazers took awhile to get going and then held on for dear life in a 28-20 nonleague victory against St. Paul.
“We had to make some adjustments against a real good football team,” Ellighouse said. “We started off real slow and the execution wasn’t there.”
After a scoreless first quarter things got better with Sierra Canyon finding the end zone twice, including right before the half to take a 14-7 lead.
Chayden Peery scored from three yards out.
“It’s always great to score right before the half,” Ellinghouse said. “We kind of needed that right there.”
The lead grew thanks to a 3-yard touchdown run from J.D. “Quatro” Sumlin with 3:08 remaining the third quarter.
Leading 28-7, Sierra Canyon allowed two touchdown runs from quarterback Gene Valdez in the final 7:20 to make things close.
Valdez scored from 11 and two yards out. The Trailblazers were finally able to run out the clock after picking up an important first down. Valdez completed 9 of 16 passes for 186 yards.
Brendan Gamble caught a 7-yard touchdown pass from Peery and rushed for a short score. Peery finished 7 of 15 for 91 yards. Gamble and sophomore Jason Jones, Jr. were effective running the ball.
D.J. Harvey caught five passes for 68 yards for Sierra Canyon (4-1).
Trenell Ridgley and Tyler Adams combined to rush for 151 yards on 14 carries. Ridgley scored a touchdown in the second quarter.
Sierra Canyon has won two in a row after a disappointing come-from-ahead setback against Oaks Christian three weeks ago. The Trailblazers host Bakersfield Friday at Granada Hills High.
St. Paul falls to 3-2