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By Loren Kopff
Artesia High and John Glenn High did not have their starting quarterbacks available when they met last Thursday in a critical 605 League contest. Artesia and Glenn also didn’t have one of their top receivers.
In fact, when the game was over, Artesia had five offensive players gain positive yardage while Glenn had three players touch the pigskin on offense. As you would expect, both defenses stole the show but a pair of second quarter touchdowns in a span of 80 seconds was all the Pioneers needed in a 21-7 victory. The win kept Artesia’s CIF-Southern Section playoff chances alive while Glenn was eliminated from contention with a week remaining in the regular season.
Artesia senior quarterback Joey Peck dislocated his collarbone on Oct. 16 against Cerritos High, and the team was without the services of senior wide receiver Christopher Razo. On the other sideline, senior quarterback Luis Vergara was on crutches after fracturing his right knee against Arroyo High on Oct. 3 and senior wide receiver Jonah Mason broke his left collarbone in the third quarter of Glenn’s game with Pioneer High on Oct. 16.
“We were kind of able to close it out,” said Artesia head coach Connor Crook. “They played us really, really tough, though. Their coach is doing a really, really good job over there, and it was evident watching the film this past week. It’s night and day since last year with them because of what he’s doing. The players have bought in and they’re playing hard, and I think our guys weren’t ready for that, and they got hit in the mouth a little bit.”
“I have to give credit to my coaching staff, especially our defensive coaching staff; Carlos Alvarez, Tyler Charlton and Ken Mason,” said Glenn first-year head coach Dwon Drummer. “They developed a great gameplan to kind of neutralize some of the things that we were going to see from Artesia. They did a great job; we were right there. It’s just things didn’t fall in place like we wanted.”
This was Artesia’s sixth straight victory over the Eagles, but nowhere near last season’s 40-6 contest. Since 1998, the Pioneers have won 22 of the 28 meetings with Glenn, scoring a touchdown or getting shutout in nine of those games. This was also the lowest scoring Artesia-Glenn game since the Eagles posted a 29-0 win on Oct. 18, 2002.
But it was Glenn which grabbed the early advantage as a fumble on the first play of the game gave the Eagles the ball at the Artesia 15-yard line. Then on fourth and 10, sophomore quarterback Ryder Perez threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Juan Navarro for the early lead.
After both teams traded punts on the next three combined possessions, Navarro thought he had his second touchdown reception, this time for 47 yards. But Glenn was called for a holding penalty and three plays later, Perez would be picked off by senior lineman Jaell Rueda.
“We just weren’t mentally prepared to start the game,” said Crook. “That falls on me as the head coach, obviously. But they seemed to remember the score last year and think it would be similar. But it’s obviously a brand new team. We’re a brand new team; they are, and we can’t start games like that. We can’t play games like that where we think we’re just going to come out every time we touch the ball and score. It doesn’t work like that.
“That was very crucial,” Crook later said of the interception “He’s been really good for us. He kind of had a rough start to the year…but ever since then, he’s been really, really good. He’s bought in, he plays hard and he’s playing like a senior. I’m happy he got the interception.”
Starting at their own 39-yard line, the Pioneers (4-5, 1-1) ran 10 plays, all on the ground as sophomore quarterback Jorge Velazquez and sophomore Justin Pettus combined for 66 yards with the latter tying the game on a seven-yard run with 7:38 left in the half.
The Eagles (2-7, 0-2) would be forced to punt for the second time, but it was blocked and picked up by junior defensive back Ismael Felix who returned it 20 yards to the house.
After that, it was all defense and ball control from the Pioneers, who had the ball for 16:19 of the first half and held Glenn to 44 yards on 18 plays.
“It obviously gave some life to our team,” said Crook. “We really didn’t respond to it the way I was hoping; we would have hoped we kept scoring from it. Those were big plays. Any time we can score on special teams, that’s huge and we get excited over that.”
“We needed them,” said Drummer of not having Mason or Vergara. “We had a couple of younger guys playing receiver…and we need them to play bigger than probably their experience.”
The fourth and final three and out offensive series by Glenn led to what would be the icebreaker in the game as the Pioneers chewed up the final 10:02 of the third quarter, running 14 plays and gaining 74 yards. However, facing fourth and four from the Glenn 31-yard line to begin the fourth quarter, the hosts were penalized for having 12 men on the field. That penalty prevented the drive from continuing as Felix caught a six-yard pass on the next play, thus turning the ball over to the Eagles.
Once again, Pettus and Velazquez combined for 55 yards on nine rushes and Velazquez completed all four of his passes for 29 yards on the long drive.
“We made mistakes on that drive,” said Crook. “That’s been a theme all year; us not finishing drives and on that one, it was players making mistakes with penalties and it was mistakes on me with 12 men on the field. That’s my job and I hold myself accountable for that.”
“That did it; that was essentially the game right there,” said Drummer. “We have to be able to get stops. We had some key penalties hurt us that kept us out on the field longer than we needed to be.”
Although it was still a one-possession contest, the Pioneers made sure Glenn wouldn’t have a chance to tie the game when they took off nearly five more minutes off the clock and put the game awa with a 38-yard touchdown run from Pettus with 2:21 left to play. He earlier had a 52-yard scoring run called back because of the third holding penalty of the game.
Pettus led Artesia with 127 yards on 20 carried while Velazquez added 60 yards on 16 touches and completed 11 of 14 passes for 76 yards. Four of his passes went to sophomore wide receiver Andrew Quarles. On defense, junior linebacker Jonathan Garcia had three tackles while junior linebacker Jamorie Mitchell added two and a half tackles and an interception, which occurred on the final play of Glenn’s last drive.
“I knew [Velazquez] was dynamic; we watched film on him,” said Drummer. “He plays receiver for them, and he plays running back for them. So we knew he was going to be dynamic for them. [Pettus] is dynamic with the ball as well. So, we knew they still had firepower. We knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy game just because [Peck] was out.”
Artesia will conclude the regular season at Pioneer on Thursday with second place and an automatic playoff berth on the line. The Pioneers have won seven of the last nine meetings with the Titans including last season’s 35-27 affair.
“Pioneer is good,” said Crook. “They’re a championship team and that’s how we look at them. I think our kids understand that they’re good. Last year, it was close at the end and they kind of came back. If there was another quarter, who knows what the score would have been. But they know it’s a big game, so hopefully we kind of take this week more seriously than we did last week because I don’t think it will end well for us if we come out and not practice well.”
For Glenn, Perez completed all six of his passes to Navarro for 44 yards while senior running back Okaro Lee gained 40 tough yards on 14 carries. Senior defensive back Christian Afonin (10 tackles), sophomore lineman Jayden Chavarin (eight tackles) and junior linebacker Andre Romo (six tackles and a fumble recovery) were the leaders.
But it was the play of freshman Kellen Huckleberry that gave the Eagles ample chances to do more damage on the offensive side with his 53 combined yards on punt and kickoff returns.
“Once again, I have to give credit to my assistant coaches,” said Drummer. “Our special teams coordinator is Ken Mason, and he came together with some stuff to give us some great field position. We knew based on our offense losing some of our key components that we were going to have to win all three phases of the game. We weren’t going to just be able to rely on two phases. We needed the special teams to kind of help us as well.”
Glenn will wrap up the season on Friday at league-leading Cerritos, looking to end a five-game skid to the Dons and score against them for the first time since 2022.
“We still have stuff to play for,” said Drummer. “We have 11 seniors who we still have to play for them. Hopefully, we can allow them to leave on a positive note, and all their hard work and dedication didn’t go for nothing. So, we still have something to play for- pride, and our school and our community. We just have to keep working and get better every day.
“We started with five players, and we have about 30 to 32 players who show up every day, work hard and know the expectation level,” he continued the progression of the program. “We have a lot of wins that probably aren’t seen on gameday. I’ll say that. But we’re going in the right direction, so I can’t complain about that.”
