The first game of the Malcolm Manuel era at Cabrillo was a mixed bag Friday night as the Jaguars went on the road to take on Artesia.
With flashes of what could be on offense, the Jaguars couldn’t get enough stops as they lost 56-26.
“You could see the birds there,” Cabrillo coach Malcolm Manuel said about the team’s performance. “There’s some tweaking. Our seniors did a really good job.”
After deferring the opening kickoff the defense went right to work as junior Guillermo Ortega flew to the ball to cause a fumble and sophomore Pierre Toliver was in the right spot to grab the ball to give the ball right to the Jaguars.
The Cabrillo (0-1) offense took some time to get into a rhythm as they turned the ball over on downs and threw two interceptions on their first three possessions.
The Jaguars faced a scary moment when Luis Lopez was injured, and emergency personnel had to be called to take him to the hospital. After Lopez was taken to the hospital, the teams warmed up after a nearly 20-minute delay.
Junior Danny Lopez then showed what he could on both sides of the ball as he forced and recovered a fumble. On the next possession Lopez caught a 6-yard touchdown pass from Fernando Lopez to cut the lead to 14-7.
“We have something top build off of,” Manuel said. “We know what we’re doing, but for a lot of these guys, it was literally their first high school game. So, they’re bright eyed and you know bushy tailed. But I think there were spurts that we did really well.”
On the next possession Artesia responded with a 8-play drive that was capped by a 1-yard touchdown by Jorge Velazquez to push the Pioneers lead to 21-7 with 1:47 left in the first half.
Cabrillo wasted no time to respond as they’re high-paced offense got loose again as Leanos found freshman Stephen Walker for a 45-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 7 with 46 second left until the half.
Leanos had the best numbers of his high school career throwing for 373 yards completing 20-39 of his pass attempts.
But, as it was for most of the night, Artesia responded two plays later as Elijah Johnson continued his strong night as he broke free for a 64-yard touchdown to push Artesia’s lead to 28-14 at halftime.
The Pioneers (1-0) continued to pile it on after a muffed punt was returned for a touchdown to push the lead to 35-14 with 8 minutes left in the third.
Leanos and the Jaguars kept looking for answers and he found one in the form of freshman Zyair Hughes whos scored a 14-yard touchdown to make it a 35-20 game.
After the Cabrillo defense made another stop, Lopez scored his second touchdown to cut the lead to 35-26. Lopez finished the game with six catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns.
Artesia added three more scores as they put the game away in the final quarter and a half.
Cabrillo will be back in action on a short week when they travel to LA Jordan on Thursday.
