(Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles)— The Roosevelt Rough Riders (7-4) overall, and now (1-0) in the L.A. City Section’s Division II first-round playoffs, moved forward with a resounding (63-36) home field triumph over the Verdugo Hills Dons of the East Valley League. With the victory, comes a great local match-up between the #7 seed, Riders and the #2 seed, the Wilson Mighty Mules. The Mules move forward after their expected win over their Northern League member school, the Marshall Barristers, who came in as the #15 seed. The final score of this game was (65-14). The Division’s second round game will take place at Wilson HS on Friday, November 9th. Kick-off is set for 7 pm.

Game Summary:

1st Qtr—The Riders were staggered a bit with the Dons’ opening possession of the game as they marched down the field en route to a quick TD at the (10:30) mark via their spread “Air Raid”  run-pass game. The scoring drive started with Verdugo Hill’s #11/QB/JR/Alex Moreno, hooked up with #13/WR/JR/Andrew Monroe on a nicely executed “catch and run” slant play in the middle of the field giving them great field position. A couple of plays later they scored on #8/RB/SR Teddy Ibarra’s off-tackle run. They missed their PAT.

The Rough Riders answered right back when they used their “ground and pound” attack utilizing their Double Wing-T formation. After a five play drive, and the ball resting on the Dons 3 yard line, #34/FB/SR/Aldo Parral took it in from there and evened the score at (6-6). The Riders failed on their PAT.

Then, on the ensuing kick-off, a surprise, and a perfectly executed “On-sider” helped the Riders to continue on the attack. Immediately taking advantage of the reward, they marched confidently towards the Dons goal line and scored on a Frankie Cruz 3 yd. run. A 2-point conversion was good when #13 Angel Rolon connected on a “jump pass” to an uncovered #8/WR/JR/Angel Ochoa. This moved the score to (14-6) Riders.  The Rider defense, led by the Front Four “D” linemen, #56 DL/JR/Ruben Castillo, #29/DL/SR/José Suarez, #53/DL/JR/Alek Rojas, and #58/DL/SR/José Gomez played solidly for the rest of the half and into the third quarter. They rallied up with their defensive coordinators and made the necessary adjustments to keep the Dons in check offensively. This naturally gave the offense more possessions and drives.

2nd Qtr—The Riders’ third TD came when Cruz set it up when he ripped off a long 55 yd. run to the Dons’ 20 yd. line. The actual TD came on a great “play-action” call when Ochoa took the pitch and rolled to his left only to find Cruz all alone in the secondary. The play covered 35 yds. and came with (11:41) left in the half. The only other score of the period came with (3:33) remaining when fullback #34/FB/SR/Aldo Parral rushed it in from 34 yds. out. This time the 2 point conversion  was good.

HALFTIME SCORE: Roosevelt  28  Verdugo Hills  6

3rd Qtr—The Riders continued from where they left off in the first half as they put up 4 more TDs, coming in this order. With (10:07) Angel Ochoa threw another TD pass, this time to#26/TE/JR/Edward Ysaac the PAT was good. Then with (3:46) left, #5/QB/JR/Andres Flores found Ochoa open for a 20 yd TD. The PAT was good, moving the score to (42-6). Right after this score, Verdugo Hills came back with an 80 yd. TD on a kick-off return by #8/Teddy Ibarra. Their 2 point conversion was good, moving the score to (42-14). The Riders scored once more when #44/WB/SR/Santos Rivera shot through the gap and rumbled in untouched for a 37 yd. TD. The PAT by Chris Bernal was good and the score was now (49-14). The Dons countered that score with a TD pass from QB/#11 Alex Moreno to his WR/#13/Andrew Monroe. The final Rough Rider score of this explosive offensive period came after a huge 44 yd. set-up run by Rivera. Coach Parral then called on #3/RB/SR/Ramaje Brumfield for his 20 yd. TD run, pushing the score to (56-20). Verdugo closed out the scoring with (:21 seconds) left, when the athletic #8/Teddy Ibarra scored on a blazing 70 yd. run from scrimmage. The score at this point was Roosevelt 56, Verdugo Hills 28.

4th Qtr—The final stanza was equal in scoring as the Riders scored at the (8:46) mark on a 3 yd. run by #2/RB/JR/Richard Cabrera and a PAT by #19/PK/SR/Kevin Jacobo. The Dons score came at the (4:58) mark on a nicely executed draw play for #8/RB/Teddy Ibarra. His teammate, #13/WR/Andrew Monroe caught a pass for the 2 point conversion to close out the game scoring. Of Significance…Head Coach Aldo Parral took great advantage of this game to insert several JV players who were brought up for the playoffs. Good game time results were credited to #15/QB/SO/ Angel Ontiveros, and #21/RB/SO/Vicente Zepeda

FINAL SCORE: Roosevelt  63, Verdugo Hills  36