Find out how roster woes affected Mt. Whitney's on-field performance

Andrew Bettencourt
For the Times-Delta

The Mt. Whitney Pioneers were quite the entertaining and proficient bunch for the first 22 minutes of Friday’s non-league game against the Hoover Patriots.

Playing an up-tempo, athletic brand of football, Mt. Whitney demonstrated some signs that the program is definitely going in the right direction under new head coach Nathan Chamberlain. The Pioneers raced out to a 19-0 lead and dominated almost every facet.

Then a game-turning dose of hard luck went against the Pioneers, delivering another dose of reality for a program that is struggling to find some solid footing.

A rash of critical injuries combined with a plunge in execution led to the Pioneers’ latest demise, a 30-25 loss to Hoover at Mineral King Bowl.

A five-point loss appeared to be the furthest thing from possibilities with how things started for Mt. Whitney.

The Pioneers scored touchdowns on their first two possessions and had forced three turnovers en route to building a 19-0 advantage with 2:27 remaining in the second quarter.

The contest had a similar feel to last year’s meeting between the two schools, a 58-16 Mt. Whitney win in Fresno.

“It was awesome. We had a lot of energy. They were doing what they were coach to do. The effort was great. It was a terrific start,” Chamberlain said.

Then things went south. And in a hurry.

After not doing much of anything right offensively, the Patriots scored 10 points over the final two minutes of the second quarter to cut Mt. Whitney’s lead to 19-10 at halftime.

Hoover running back Rene Raya had 174 yards rushing by halftime with his top carry being a 38-yard scoring jaunt.

It was the Rene Raya Show for the Hoover offense in the second half. Raya scored touchdowns on back-to-back possessions to put Hoover up 23-19 early in the fourth quarter. Raya finished with a game-high 275 yards rushing on 37 carries.

Mt. Whitney responded to Raya’s third touchdown run with 5-play, 88-yard scoring drive that was propelled by a couple of great catches from Jared Castellon for 22 and 44 yards, respectively. Senior quarterback Josue Cisneros put the Pioneers back up 25-23 on a two-yard run with 10:27 left in the fourth quarter.

The quick scoring strike helped Mt. Whitney on the scoreboard but didn’t help a beleaguered defense.

With just 48 seconds having elapsed on the clock, the Pioneers were forced to find a way to slow down a Patriot offense that had scored points in four of their last five possessions.

The results were predictable.

Hoover ran the ball 12 times to go with a couple of well-placed passing plays in its construction of a textbook 75-yard scoring drive. The series was capped by a seven-yard touchdown run from quarterback David Rodney.   

The Rodney touchdown put Hoover up 30-25 with 2:17 remaining in the game. However, the Pioneers couldn’t manage a threat and they had two series to give it a legitimate try.

The one statistic from Friday’s game that stood out from all of the other numbers was the number of healthy Pioneer players available in the decisive fourth quarter — 20.

“It’s tough to win a football game when you start the game with a 24-man roster, and then you’re down to 20 players after a few injuries,” Chamberlain said. “But I’m so proud of our kids. They gave it everything they had. They competed until the last seconds of the game.”

Cisneros finished 19-of-43 passing for 297 yards and two touchdowns. Castellon grabbed eight Cisneros passes for 153 yards and a touchdown.

In terms of the big picture for the rest of the 2019 season, one underlying concern is if the Pioneers can continue playing an up-tempo offense. Friday’s outcome provided evidence that it may not be the best thing.

Mt. Whitney was tired over the latter stages of the second half, and key injuries compounded the issue — leading running back Ryan Quintana was lost for the game with an injury late in the second quarter and Castellon was hurt during the Pioneers’ last scoring drive.

“That’s one of the things we’ll talk about over the weekend,” Chamberlain said when asked if the Pioneers will scrap the up-tempo offensive pace. “We’re not changing the offense. We’re keeping the offense. One thing about this offense is that you can slow it down as easy as you can speed it up. We’ll talk about it.”

In terms of the big picture when it comes to the long run, that’s a question for the Visalia Unified School District.

Will the district change things up to level the playing field for Visalia’s public high schools? 

According to the CIF Central Section website, Mt. Whitney faces a noticeable enrollment deficit.

Redwood is among the county’s biggest schools with 2,266 students. El Diamante is right behind Redwood with 1,991 students. Golden West has 1,743 students and Mt. Whitney has less than 1,600 students.

It’s difficult to keep up when you’re drawing 600 students less than your biggest rival, and even worse when that same rival has a varsity football roster that is more than tripled than your ever-decreasing list.

Hoover 30, Mt. Whitney 25

H           0            10         7            13         —          30

MW      13         6            0            6            —          25

First Quarter

MW — Ryan Quintana 2 run (Antonio Grave kick), 9:56

MW — Jayden Castellon 15 pass from Josue Cisneros (kick failed), 3:21

Second Quarter

MW — Avant DeLeon 35 pass from Cisneros (run failed), 2:27

H — Rene Raya 38 run (Ben Hernandez kick), 1:57

H — B. Hernandez 28 FG, 0:11

Third Quarter

H — Raya 4 run (Hernandez kick), 5:37

Fourth Quarter

H — Raya 47 run (run failed), 11:15

MW — Cisneros 2 run (run failed), 10:27

H — David Rodney 7 run (Hernandez kick), 2:17

              H           MW     

First downs     17         14

Rushes-yards 47-322              26-34

Passing yards 96         297

Total yards      418       331

Comp-Att-Int  14-24-1             19-43-1

Fumbles-lost  4-1        0-0

Penalties-yards           10-95  5-40

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Hoover: Rene Raya 37-275, David Rodney 8-69, team 2-(minus) 22. Mt. Whitney: Ryan Quintana 11-32, Josue Cisneros 10-12, Avant DeLeon 1-3, D.J. Martinez 2-(minus) 1, team 2-(minus) 12.  

PASSING — Hoover: Rodney 14-23-1 96, team 0-1-0 0. Mt. Whitney: Cisneros 19-43-1 297.

RECEIVING — Hoover: Raya 7-42, William Sawtell 3-23, Shelton Lillard 2-20, Ethan Noble-Spry 1-4, Julian Diaz 1-7. Mt. Whitney: Jayden Castelllon 8-153, Miguel Araiza 2-57, Quintana 2-12, DeLeon 5-60, Chris Zavala 1-11, Noe Ruiz 1-4.  

Records — Hoover 1-1, Mt. Whitney 0-3.