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City earns one-point Fiesta win
By Andrew J. Campa Staff Writer


MONTEREY PARK - It seemed improbable at the 6:24 mark of the first quarter of Saturday night's inaugural Fiesta Bowl high school all-star game at East Los Angeles College, that the outcome would be anything other than a CIF-Southern Section blowout win.

At that point, the Southern Section all-stars were up 14-0 and were seemingly scoring at will. Yet, from then on, the undersized CIF-Los Angeles City Section team rallied and outscored its opponent 22-7 to come away with a 22-21 win.

"We made a lot of adjustments at halftime," Roosevelt High and City co-coach Javier Cid said. "They were passing so easily so we mixed in six defensive backs to slow them down and it worked."

Down 21-6 at the half, the City's adjustments began to stifle the Southern Section's quarterback trio of Schurr's Joe Orduno, Bosco Tech's Cameron Kusnier and San Gabriel's Saile Ramirez, who began to need more time to find open receivers.

The added time resulted in increased pressure from the gritty front four of the City, which ultimately led to more sacks.

The most costly sack came with 2:22 left in the third quarter.

With a third down and 21 at his 9-yard line, Orduno dropped back to pass only to

find that his receivers were blanketed. As the quarterback began to scramble, pressure came from his blind side, forcing him to back track right into the path of the City's Aaron Morgan.
As Morgan began to drag down Orduno at the 2-yard line, the recent Schurr graduate desperately tried to unload the ball. Unfortunately, Orduno's pass was thrown behind him and eventually rolled out of the end zone for a safety. The two points gave the City its only lead at 22-21.

"We couldn't seem to stop the pressure," Cantwell Sacred Heart and Southern Section coach Pete Smolin said. "They were in our backfield way too much."

The safety capped a 16-point quarter for the City.

"They just wanted it more than us tonight," said George Fletcher, Southern Section linebacker from Bishop Amat. "They're from the City. So you knew they were going to play. They just beat us."

After the safety, the Southern Section failed to mount any serious scoring threats.

The Southern Section's final hope was snuffed out with 1:50 left in the fourth quarter when the City's Darrell Ficklin stripped the Southern Section's Glenn Carrera at the Southern Section 40. The fumble was recovered by the City's David Lara.

"It's kind of tough to lose," Kusnier said. "I still can't believe it."

The Southern Section opened the game with two Orduno touchdown passes to Julian De Lay Hay and Anthony Pines in a matter of three minutes.

Kusnier had a one-yard touchdown run right before the end of the first half for the other Southern Section score.