Boys remain in the running for playoffs
FOOTBALL The team continues their offensive exellence with wins against Chino and Ontario.
Matthew Uballe secures the ball despite the heavy rain during the first half of their loss against first-seeded Chaffey.
In Diamond Bar High School football’s first eight games, their offense has scored 37 touchdowns, 11 more than the team had at the end of last season. As a result, the explosive offense racked up two wins of the three games they’ve played in the Mt. Baldy League, having adjusted well to head coach Jim Reitz’s new implemented offense.
Reitz credits this to the team’s impressive talent at the skill positions.
“The athletes we have, Kai Smith, Dylan Karanickolas, Jeremiah Chukwudobe, Matthew Uballe and Chase Wells— these guys are special, and nobody has ever stopped us,” Reitz said. “We stopped ourselves by making turnovers, and we’re outsized by everybody, so people’ve been able to run the ball on us, but our defense is giving everything they’ve got, every single snap.”
Karanickolas, the junior quarterback, has contributed over 60 percent of the team’s yardage and completed 17 touchdown passes. Along with Karanickolas, the offensive leaders are seniors wide receiver Smith and running back Chukwudobe, averaging 119 and 126 yards per game, respectively.
Despite the Brahmas losing its last game of the preseason against Rowland 35-31, the team has displayed strong offense and defense in their most recent league games, defeating Chino 34-25 and Ontario 21-14. However, the team encountered their first loss against league opponent Chaffey last weekend, 70-34.
“Usually, you have a 15 minute half-time to go make adjustments, but we had a 20 hour half-time, so they made some adjustments and we made some adjustments, and their adjustments were pretty successful,” Reitz said.
The two wins have proven to both the coaching staff and team that they are headed in the right direction, despite the lopsided loss against Chaffey.
“We still gained 468 yards of offense, that’s unheard of. The national average is like 270 [yards], and as a team, we’re averaging 430 yards a game,” Reitz said. “They’ve got to keep believing in themselves, and work harder than the other opponent every week.”
However, the Chaffey loss leaves the Brahmas in third place in the Mt. Baldy League, with Don Lugo and Chaffey currently tied for first. With two more games left in the season, the Brahmas must win at least one of them to make it to the playoffs. This doesn’t worry Reitz or dissuade him and his team from their goal of competing at CIF, and potentially taking the title.
“Our goal is to compete for a CIF championship, and it doesn’t matter where you’re at, you want to compete for that championship,” Reitz said. “God is supposed to deal with the worrying. I’m supposed to press on and make my kids as good as I can make them, and my kids are pretty darn good so I’m not worried at all.”
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