(Boyle Heights/East Los Angeles, CA) [From The Editor’s Desk]: On Friday, Oct. 28th, the Roosevelt Rough Riders, before another capacity home crowd of 1,200, put on an incredible high-scoring clinic over their final Eastern League opponent, the South Gate Rams. This regular season finale ended their amazing and highly successful regular 2022 season The abundance of touchdowns delighted their greatly supportive student-body, faculty, and Boyle Heights community fans while causing the Rams to play catch up for most of the game. The teams scored a total of (102) points, with the Riders easily prevailing at (62-40).
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And now that their “Second and/or Real Season” is set to begin, after their “Bye” week of preparation last Friday, November 3rd, they are the #6 seed in the “Open Division” Quarterfinals Playoffs which begin this Thursday, November 10th, instead of on Friday, November 11th, our National Veterans Day holiday weekend. Their opponent will be the #3 seeded, Banning Pilots, with an overall record of (5-5) and a Marine League record of (3-1), representing the City of Wilmington.
Rest assured that the Rough Riders are no strangers to competing on the road this year, especially for having played (7) out of their scheduled (10) games as visitors. Head Coach Aldo Parral, now in his sixth season, will have his team prepared to give it their very best in search of another win, and the right to move on to the next round of play.
-Game Summary-
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The Roosevelt Rough Riders finished off their season with a huge home victory over the South Gate Rams on Friday, October 28 on Dickey Field. Although the Riders came off a tough loss to their arch-rivals, the players were excited to take on the Rams.
South Gate brought their team that has been very competitive against the Riders and there was definitely no love lost between both programs. Roosevelt’s goal was to finish off the season strong and get ready for the playoffs. With over 100 points scored between both teams, there was enough action to satisfy everyone in attendance.
The game began with South Gate receiving the kickoff and driving down the field for the first score. The Riders took their opening possession and returned the favor while also being successful on their 2 point try. Roosevelt scored on ALL eight possessions and made seven of eight two-point conversions for a final score of (62-40).
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The standout players for the Riders included the usual suspects, #5/Jared Andrade, #4/Isaiah Wright, #3/Naszeer Reed, #9/Alexander Arroyo and the offensive line led by seniors #50/Alejandro Aguilar-Ibarra and #56/Osman Cerezo. The Riders racked up a whopping (422) yards on the ground in contrast to only (21) yards passing. It was an explosive offensive night by Roosevelt.
The defense was challenged as they struggled to contain, Senior/QB/#1/Terryonte Taylor, all evening. At the end of the night the Rider defense did just enough to make critical stops at key moments to ensure the ninth Roosevelt victory, thus securing an undefeated home season in 2022. The Rough Riders are eager to begin their postseason run at Banning, with their overall season record of (5-5), and (3-1) in the Marine League, on Thursday, November 10th. Kick-off is set for 7:30 pm.
-Coach Parral’s Corner-
On your last regular season Eastern League Home Game vs. South Gate and the environment in the stands for the student-body and the team. Was there anything special that took place?…“Our regular season ended on a positive note with the victory over South Gate HS. It was a wild night with over 100 points total scored between both squads. The fans had a great show and were thrilled with all the action that took place. We were fortunate to begin our contest on a positive note by celebrating our alum from class of 1970, Vance Valencia. He was member of arguably one of Roosevelt’s greatest teams, the 1969 Championship Finalist. As an honorary Captain, he started off the night well for us and Roosevelt football took care of the rest.”
On your preparations in facing Banning in the Open Division 1st round Quarterfinal game on Nov. 10th at Banning and how much the week off will help…”We are excited to be entering the playoffs on a positive note and are looking forward to our game vs Banning HS. Coach Grajeda has a quality squad and they will definitely be a tough team to play in the first round. The week off will benefit us as we get time to heal up and get back to full strength.”
On the mindset and “esprit de corps” of your Senior Class players who will be playing in the Open Division as playoff veterans at this level. Your thoughts also on how this has improved and developed your underclassmen for next season…“Playing in the Open is very tough as we realized last season vs San Pedro HS. This year’s seniors are definitely battle ready and understand the elevated level of competition they will face when visiting Banning. Many of the boys are mentally prepared for this contest and will not be in awe of the caliber of player we will see. The underclassmen have also expressed that they feel confident in their ability to meet the expectation before them.”
