A prayer circle brings players together before the game.
After seeing Bonita tie the score 14-14 midway through the first quarter, the Ayala Bulldogs reeled off 48 straight points to defeat the Bearcats 62-14 on a Friday the 13th homecoming night at Glenn Davis Stadium.
In the first half, Ayala scored on six of its eight possessions. The only times the Bulldogs didn’t score were on account of a fumble and the decision to run out the clock as the first half was ending.
At first, the fans on both sides thought they were in for a track meet. In lightning fashion, Ayala needed only three downs to go 75 yards for a touchdown, the last 28 yards coming on a scoring strike from Bulldogs quarterback Cole McCain to Jeremiah Lineberger.
Regardless of the score, Bonita can always count on its fans for support.
Meanwhile, Bonita went nowhere on its first possession and was forced to punt. Ayala was back in business at its own 45-yard line, but on a third-and-seven at the Bonita 42, Kenny Coulson popped the ball loose from the Ayala running back and the bouncing pigskin was scooped up by Diego Jimenez who ran it back for a touchdown.
If Ayala was alarmed by the sudden change in fortune it shouldn’t have been because once Ayala was on offense again it needed only three downs to score, the last coming on a McCain 25-yard touchdown toss to Mason Hura to stretch the score to 14-6.
Bonita, however, answered right back. After a pass interference call against the Bulldogs gave the Bearcats the ball at its own 30-yard line, J.P. Andrade connected with Kevin Bullock for a 70-yard touchdown pass, much of the yardage coming after Bullock shook off a tackler and won a footrace to the end zone.
With 6:42 left in the first quarter, the score was 14-14, and you could see the officials getting winded going up and down the sidelines.
But then Bonita dropped the baton, going scoreless the remainder of the game. Meanwhile, still in the first quarter, McCain threw an eight-yard touchdown pass to Josh Mount at the 5:30 mark, giving Chino a 20-14 advantage. Then Max Hura rumbled into the endzone with 49 seconds left in the first to make the score 27-14 after the extra point.
The game would only get worse after that. All night, Andrade faced a furious rush, and Bonita had few answers for Ayala’s elusive quarterback.
Adding insult, Ayala continued to throw the ball well into the fourth quarter, providing Bonita with plenty of bulletin material for next season’s rematch.
But Bonita coach Ibis Aguilar wasn’t looking ahead to next year. He was still absorbing this year’s humiliation.
“You have to give Ayala credit, but as I told our players we weren’t in the right mindset all week long,” Aguilar said. “I hope they learned a valuable lesson tonight and that is, if you don’t put the work in, you won’t get the results you want.”
When questioned about Ayala going for it on fourth down and throwing the ball late in the game when it had an insurmountable lead, Aguilar said, “It was our job to stop them.”
Coverage sponsored by longtime La Verne Realtor Colleen Bennett
with Sotheby’s International Realty
&