Rancho Cucamonga football team looking for…
Rancho Cucamonga football team looking for redemption in playoffs
By Michelle Gardner | mgardner@scng.com | Daily Bulletin
November 20, 2014 at 4:15 p.m.
All season long most area football enthusiasts have wondered what is wrong with the Rancho Cucamonga football team.
The Cougars have traditionally battled for the top spot. This season they settled for third and had to fight off Etiwanda just to finish there. It was a good thing for them because Etiwanda was fourth and didn't get an at-large playoff bid.
Well the real Cougars are apparently back. Rancho opened some eyes with a 52-20 win over Valencia, the champion out of the Foothill League.
Cougars coach Nick Baiz says it came down to pride.
"Finishing third didn't set well with them," he said. "They went out and played like they had a chip on their shoulder. I wish they had played like that all year."
It won't get an easier this week as the Cougars (7-4) will square off against second-seeded Mission Viejo at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Los Osos High School in a West Valley Division quarterfinal.
Last week's win also came even though the Cougars didn't have their full complement of weapons. Junior running back Aaron Manning injured his shoulder against Damien in the last game of the regular season and did not play.
Jaylon Redd, who starts at safety and plays some running back, missed the game after getting ejected from the Damien game.
Junior defensive tackle Jabari Watson (knee) was also out. Both are expected back.
Junior quarterback Angel Matute picked up much of the slack, throwing for 277 yards and six touchdowns without an interceptions.
Senior linebacker Isi Fonua led the defensive charge with 15 tackles.
While it was a nice win, Baiz knows this week's foe presents even more of a challenge.
"We're going to need to play with the same intensity we did last week," he said. "Hopefully we're peaking at the right time.
Upland's Tilford excels
Last year Nathan Tilford saw action on both sides of the ball for Upland High School as a freshman.
This year Tilford, who had Division I scholarship offers even before last season, is being used solely on offense where he has factored into the running and passing games.
Tilford, a 6-foot-2, 195-pounder, has 118 rushing attempts for 790 yards and 12 touchdowns, highlighted by a 99 yard run last week in a first round crushing of San Juan Hills.
He also has 10 catches for 133 yards and two touchdowns,
It's not that coach Tim Salter doesn't want to use him on defense, he just doesn't have to. The linebackers he has are pretty good. One of those, Josh Woods, has committed to UCLA.
As for which position he is destined to play in college, that's still debatable.
"He's still young and it will probably depend on how much he grows," Salter said.
The Upland-Hart West Valley Division game will be aired live on Fox Sports West, this the 7:30 p.m. start.
Thompson a no go
The Central Division contest between Colony (9-2) and Glendora (9-2) has been billed as the battle of the backup quarterbacks with senior Jordan Johnson replacing junior Josh Thompson (broken collarbone) at Colony and Adrian DeGuzman replacing junior Matt Fink (ankle) for Glendora.
Johnson has thrown for 675 yards and five touchdowns in relief of Thompson. There has been some speculation that Thompson might try and go since the injury to his non-throwing shoulder but coach Steve Randall said he will stick with Johnson.
Fink is expected to try and play for Glendora.
"We can only worry about we can control," Randall said. "We're just working on our side of things and not worrying about what they may or may not do."
Michelle Gardner | reporter
Michelle Gardner has covered high school sports and local colleges for the Daily Bulletin and Sun since 2002. She previously covered a wide variety of sports from the high school level to the professional ranks in Florida with tenures at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Naples Daily News and the Fort Myers News-Press and is graduate of the University of Florida.
mgardner@scng.com
Follow Michelle Gardner	@MGardnerSports