Last year, we had 32 middle school football players and only a week’s worth of training before the season began. We also lost the first game.

This year, we had only 12 middle school football players, but we did have two weeks’ worth of training during the fall sports season training camp to help our boys prepare better for this season.

And it paid off.

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This year, parents, coaches, and fans were worried about the small number and size of our football players. Could they match up well against other teams

And the answer was found in the first few minutes of the first game of the season.

Our first match up was against Victor Valley on Thursday, September 10. The boys were psyched up about playing, and everyone was nervous about how the game would go. Last year, our team won against VV, 38-6.

On the opening kick off, our running back/receiver, Lamar Francis, caught the ball and ran for about 40 yards to score our first touchdown. Boys did that surprise and excite everyone on the Cubs’ sideline. Quarterback Ramiro Bustamante ran for the extra 2 to make it 8-0. After that, we stopped Victor Valley’s first drive short, with the help with big Hiroshi Nakama’s tackling, and got the ball back on offense.

Ramiro Bustamante made a short pass to our running back, Jed Dannis, who carried the ball across 10 yards for a touchdown. Another extra 2 points made it 16-0 all in the first few minutes of the quarter. Jed Dannis made another touchdown near the end of the 1st quarter, and the score jumped to 24-0 by the end of the quarter. During the 2nd quarter, Ramiro Bustamante connected with Dannis for yet another touchdown, making the score 30-0. When we reached halftime, the scoreboard showed that CSDR was dominating the game with a score of 38-0. Last year, it took the entire game for our Cubs to score all 38 points against Victor Valley’s 6, and yet by halftime of the game this year, we were already up 38-0 with two more quarters to play.

The second half of the game proved to be more of a battle, with both teams taking turns trying to carry the ball across the field. At one point, Lamar Francis took the ball across about 40 yards before being tripped up by a VV player. There were no points scored, but the outcome had already been decided at halftime- the Cubs had definitely taken control of the game and would not give their lead up at all. We won our first game of the season with a loud bang, surprising and thrilling everyone from the players to the Cubs community. The players of the game were Jed Dannis and Lamar Francis, for their hard work in carrying the ball across the field many times.

Our next game will be against Rio Hondo on Thursday, September 17, at 3:30 pm on our HOME FIELD, at the CSDR Football Field. Please come out to show our players support and root them on.

Jeremias Valencia
Sports Coordinator