Bonita Shells Walnut 42-7

All is right in Bearcats land.

 

 

 

After dropping its first three contests of the season, Bonita has rolled to consecutive 61-20, 57-16 and 42-7 victories, forcing the referees to go to a running clock in the fourth quarter as the only effective way to stop Bonita’s potent offense.

Bonita had everything working against the Walnut Mustangs on another sultry summer-like Friday night at Glenn Davis Stadium. Quarterback Tanner Diebold completed 16 of 19 passes for 324 yards and a touchdown. Reggie Turner, with 170 rushing yards on 18 carries, continued his torrid touchdown pace, scoring four more to give him a ridiculous 10 TDs in the last two games. Brandt Davis booted 25-yard and 41-yard field goals and several touchbacks. And on perhaps the most spectacular play of the night, Angel Verdugo hauled in a 41 touchdown pass from Diebold, bolting down the northern sideline to paydirt.

Bonita’s offensive line was a wall, keeping Diebold on his feet and blowing holes open wider than the sky for running backs Turner and Shane Pitts

 

 

Despite Bonita’s total dominance, head coach knows the “meat and potatoes” of his schedule lies ahead, with perennial champion West Covina looming in two weeks after an upcoming bye.

“The bye is coming at an opportune time,” head coach Adrian Medrano said. “We we need to get healthy, we need to rest. We’re banged up. Magaallanes couldn’t play because he has a tweaked back. Shane Pitts went down the last four minutes. That’s the not a good thing.”

While Mother Nature over time will try to heal Medrano’s battered and bruised troops, he and his coaches will try to fix what’s fixable. “We had over 100 yards in penalties,” Medrano said. “We have to be a much more disciplined team. If we want to be successful, we will need to eliminate those kinds of mistakes.”

 

 

But outside the holding penalties and personal fouls, it was hard to find much fault with the Bearcats attack that rolled up 566 yards of total offense and 20 first downs on Friday.

In the first quarter, the Bearcats bounced to a 10-0 lead on the strength of a Davis 25-yard field goal and Verdugo’s touchdown reception. In fact, Verdugo was the player of the game in the first half. After the Davis field goal, the Mustangs came charging back until Verdugo, also playing outside linebacker, recovered a Walnut fumble at Bonita’s 24-yard line. Verdugo also made the last tackle for Bonita to end the first half. Verdugo finished the game with five catches for 79 yards.

In the second quarter, Turner scored the first of his four touchdowns on a 9-yard run. Holder and back-up quarterback Cody Brazzill followed with a two-point conversion to push the Bonita lead to 18-0.

 

 

Using good clock management, Bonita got one more crack at the end zone before the half. Two holding penalties set the Bearcats back, however, and the team settled for a Davis 41-yard field goal to make the score 21-0 at intermission.

Bonita put the game out of reach at the start of the second half. With fans and the band barely settling back into their seats, Turner ripped off a 74-yard touchdown run with 11:12 remaining in the third to expand the Bearcats’ lead to 28-0 after the Davis extra point.

Turner helped make it 35-0, scoring on an 11-yard run up the gut of Walnut defense with 4:45 left in the third. Walnut finally got on the board at the end of the period when Cody Lepp hauled in a beautifully thrown 50-yard rainbow pass from quarterback Cameron Siete (No. 7).

 

 

Bonita would score one more time (again it was Turner on a 5-yard run before Bonita turned out the lights on Walnut.

The coaching staff even had Turner attempt a pass from the Wildcat formation, but Turner was picked off in the end zone.

“I don’t think he’s going to be giving Tanner competition for the quarterback spot any time soon,” Medrano said about the ill-advised pass.

 

 

Nor has any team given Bonita any competition over the last three weeks.

That could change, however, with the upcoming game against West Covina. Fasten your chin straps and make your travel plans to be there for what will be the biggest game of the season.

 

 

After the game is over and the weekend is finally here, open up Life Lessons of a Harvard Reject, a special book that will inspire and motivate you to do more, no matter where you currently are in life. For more, vist www.HarvardReject.com.