SANJACINTO21,HEMET7
Tigers ring a win true
By Allan Steele
Correspondent
SAN JACINTO » San Jacinto retained the Victory Bell on Friday night with a 21-7 win over rival Hemet.
The Tigers had to rally with two second-half scores while the defense shut out Hemet after the Bulldogs got on the scoreboard in the first quarter.
The win keeps San Jacinto (8-0, 3-0) perfect and set up a potential Mountain Pass League championship showdown next week with perennial power Citrus Hill. San Jacinto also ran its win streak in one of the area’s fiercest rivalries to five over Hemet.
“When you play a rivalry game, all bets are out the door,” San Jacinto coach Aric Galliano said. “That rivalry and the community and everything behind it makes it a very tough game, mentally and physically.”
Hemet (4-4, 1-2), coming off a tough victory over
Beaumont last week, nearly had a disastrous start when the Tigers picked off Bulldogs quarterback Nicholas Thornburg on the second play of the game and returned the ball to the Hemet 5-yard line. The Bulldogs defense held, forcing the Tigers to turn the ball over on downs.
The Bulldogs took over at their own 4-yard line and put together an impressive 96-yard drive with Thornburg doing most of the damage in the running game. He capped the drive with a 9-yard pass to Dawson Powers to put the Bulldogs up 7-0.
San Jacinto followed with a 17play drive that took up most of the second quarter. Kajiya Hollawayne orchestrated the drive and found Kaleb Hervey for an 18-yard touchdown pass.
With the score tied 7-7, Hollawayne tossed a perfect pass over the middle to Hervey on the first play of the third quarter, and Hervey outran the defense for an 89yard touchdown. Hemet’s offense was stifled for the rest of the second half. The Tigers added to the lead with Juan Denny scampering for a 5-yard touchdown.