FOOTBALL SPORT SHORTS, 2010
(Latest football shorts will be at the top of the section. Scroll down to check out past results. Tournament games do not count toward win/loss record. Visit the Sports Section for football features.)

Check out the 2010 schedule and stay up to date with stats and standings at Maxpreps Eagle football home page. Central Valley Football has been covering FC football with photos and articles at the Fresno Christian page. The Eagles finished 1-9 overall and 0-5 in the West Sequoia League. Scrimmages do not count towards the overall record.

Central Valley Football has been covering FC football with photos and articles at the Fresno Christian page.

FOOTBALL, 2010

SEASON END

FC SUFFERS LOSS, SENIOR NIGHT–Nov. 12
The Eagles took on the Orosi Cardinals at home on senior night, and hoped to pull off a win as they were also 1-8, but failed to do so, losing, 38-13, Nov. 12.

In the third quarter, senior captain Andrew Evans was injured and fractured his fibula. However, Evans still says he enjoyed his final game.

“As our last game I would’ve liked to play the entire game, but I still had a good time on the sidelines,” Evans said. “I really got to see the boys come together for the last time this season and work hard as a team and really be unified. Ultimately, this season was a good experience and totally worth it.”

Also a captain, senior Zach Camden says football is unlike all other sports and on whole different level. Which is why he says he loves the game so much.

“Playing football isn’t like any other sport, you just can’t get the feeling or the feel of the brotherhood on the team like you can in football,” Camden said. “The drama sucked, but it’s worth it play one last game. Overall though I’m glad we were able to finish the season.”

Even though Evans has though about playing college ball, he has inclined toward not participating in collegiate athletics. As a result, he decided this was going to be his last game.

“It was really emotional for me since it was the last game I was going to play,” Evans said. “Even though there’s been talk about me playing college ball, I was leaning against not doing that. So for me, I was going into it with the mindset that this is the last time I’m playing football and it was really emotional because of that.”

The Eagles had numerous hardships throughout the season and despite this, they kept moving forward. At one point, the varsity squad was down to 14 players, but still played. Then, former coach Bonner Cunnings resigned, leaving coaches Robert Foshee and Rayne Simens to take control of the team. They decided early on to bring up the JV, making a roster of 24 to finish the season.

Foshee says he has appreciated the opportunity to coach the current senior class for four years and observe their growth as players and individuals.

“From seeing them where they didn’t know how to put pads on or helmets on or how to run plays to almost being adults already is really fun,” Foshee said. ” And also just being able to see them develop spiritually, emotionally and physically, has been neat for me. A lot of the time you might only see a few years of that, but to see five and six years for some of them, it’s pretty cool.”

RAIDERS SHUTOUT EAGLES–Nov. 5
The Eagles hosted the Caruthers Raiders with the home field advantage, but Caruthers pushed ahead despite this to win 56-0, Nov. 5.

Junior quarterback, Tyler Krigbaum threw for 37 yards, 8 completions for 21 attempts, and also rushed for 22 yards in three carries. He says it was a different experience to run the ball as he was able to take a more aggressive mindset.

“I’ve never really gotten to run the ball as a quarterback,” Krigbaum said. “So being able to just get out of the pocket and know that I have a head of steam and I get to hit him instead of him hitting me was pretty fun.”

Caruthers was led by their senior quarterback Josh Gilmore, who threw for 126 yards and two touchdown passes, says their offensive line stepped up to allow them to run the ball and have pocket protection. Also, he felt the Eagles played a hard game even though they lost.

“We played well on both sides of the ball, but you got to give it to our line they played really well and stepped it up tonight,” Gilmore said. “We were able to run the ball which we haven’t been able to do for a while. They [FC] played with heart and class; they never gave up and did well.”

Coach Robert Foshee says the team continues to grow together and this game, they exerted all the effort possible.

“Their hearts are 100 percent for each other, the game, playing hard and they didn’t stop that the whole game,” Foshee said. “So I was proud of how they put that into it. From this, we don’t change our course, we just gotta learn how to play with each other and with different teams.”

As it wil be the Eagles last game this Friday against Orosi at home, Krigbaum anticipates the game with relief, but also excitement.

“It’s good to know that we’re going to have a break pretty soon because it’s been a long season,” Krigbaum said. “I’m excited because I know everyone no matter what will go all out and everyone’s going to show up ready to play. It should be a great game where we just have fun.”

The Eagles will next host Orosi at home for the final game, Nov. 12.

PANTHERS OUST EAGLES–Oct. 29
With a roster of 25, the Eagles traveled to take on the Parlier Panthers and put up a strong fight to keep the score within six points,13-6, a majority of the game. In the fourth quarter however, the Panthers took control and tacked on another 21 points, beating FC, 34-6, Oct. 29.

In the second quarter, senior Andrew Evans found a gap in the defense to take the ball all the way down to the three yard line. He then suffered a blow from a Parlier defender to knock the ball out. However, offensive lineman, Chris Weddington, ’13, fell on the ball to continue the Eagle drive into the end zone, 6-6.

This is Weddington’s second game on varsity and says he had some good moments this game, but also some bad.

“Varsity is fun,” Weddington said, “but I have good nights and bad nights. It’s just a little faster and they guys hit harder. All the varsity guys are pretty encouraging and after the game they told me not to get down on myself because they mess up too.”

Senior Abel Carreon says the team made significant improvements from the last game against Fowler.

“I think we played pretty good and a lot more as a team then we did last week,” Carreon said. “We may have lost, but we just played a lot better this week. We also weren’t so jumbled up with the thing about [Bonner] Cunnings, but this week we got our heads on straight and decided that we need to play for our school.”

Coach Robert Foshee says this is the first week where the lower class men have begun to mesh with the upper class men and work off of each other.

“This is the first week they really started to jell,” Foshee said. “Before they were all kind of competing with each other, but now they’re coming along side each other. Both of them are also raising their game, but the score board didn’t show it really tonight, but they are.”

The Eagles will next host Caruthers at home, Nov. 5.

FOWLER TOPS EAGLES AT HOMECOMING–Oct. 22
Early in homecoming week, coach Bonner Cunnings and most of the coaching staff, except Robert Foshee and Rayne Simens, resigned from their role as coaches. Also, the Eagles’ roster of 14 posed a problem and so JV was disbanded and the sophomores and one freshman were brought up to play. Despite all of this, FC still struggled against the Fowler Redcats as they lost, 35-0, Oct. 22.

The Eagles advanced to the red zone several times, but each time the Redcats defense made the stop as FC remained scoreless. Andrew Evans, ’11, rushed for 55 yards and had one reception for 20 yards.

Senior captain Zach Camden says even though they were shutout, they still gave the school a homecoming.

“The score board says we lost and that’s true, but I really feel we accomplished a lot,” Camden said. “We accomplished a lot by being able to field a team and provide a homecoming game for our student body. We just had to pray and put all our faith in God that he would get us through this and he did.”

Fowler running back and defensive back, junior Jacob Kamine, had nine carries for 89 yards and one touchdown. He says they were worried about whether or not FC would have a team during the week, but with the Eagles bringing up their JV it posed a good game.

“I think it was equal with the size of the players they had, but just the age and the experience was the difference,” Kamine said. “We definitely want to take away from this game is to play clean because we’ve had a lot of conflict. This game we didn’t really have any so that was a big improvement for us.”

Foshee and Simens coached the team, and Foshee says the sophomores and the one freshman, picked up their game to play at the varsity level.

“The under class-men stepped up and became one team with the varsity,” Foshee said. “The team fought for each other and the score at the end of the game didn’t quite matter, but that they came together as a team was what really mattered. The team decided to stand firm no matter what’s going to happen in the game.”

The Eagles will next travel to play Parlier.

FC UNABLE TO IMPROVE RECORD–Oct. 15
The Eagles traveled to play the Riverdale Cowboys and failed to keep up with them as FC only put up six points in their, 27-6, loss, dropping to 0-1 in the West Sequoia League, Oct. 15.

Although FC kept the first quarter scoreless, the Cowboys began to slip ahead in the second scoring two unanswered touchdowns, 14-0. Then in the fourth Andrew Evans, ’11, who rushed for 183 yards, scored for the Eagles, but the could not hold on as Riverdale score two more to win the game, 27-6.

Once again the Eagles were plagued by injuries as seniors Danny Ibarra hurt his shoulder and Josiah Ford strained his neck. Ford was taken off the field on a stretcher and about to be taken away by the ambulance, but decided to return to the sidelines and cheer on his team.

Nose tackle, John Condra, ’11, who had six tackles and two fumble recoveries, says when Ford came back to the sidelines the team began to work together.

“After what happened to Josiah [Ford], we just got closer and started playing more physical,” Condra said. “We were real disappointed that he couldn’t play and so we wanted to take it out on the other team. We started playing harder and smash-mouth football.”

Assistant coach Ervin Hernandez, says his team is unlike any other where almost all the players, play every single down.

“These men are truly warriors, and I cannot say enough of their effort they leave on the field,” Hernandez said. “Our guys play everything, every down, with no rest. What more can a coach ask for when these guys play their hearts out; that itself is a true testament of the heart shown by our players.”

The Eagles will next host Fowler for Homecoming, Oct. 22.

TRANQUILLITY DEFEATS EAGLES–Oct. 8
FC traveled to Tranquillity and took blow after blow as Chandler Vargas, ’12, was injured in the third quarter and rushed to the hospital, Danny Ibarra, ’11, dislocated his shoulder and Josiah Ford, ’11, injured his neck. Despite this, the Eagles scored three touchdowns, senior Andrew Evans, Ford and Martin Moreno, ’12, each scored one in their, 45-19, loss, Oct. 8.

With these injuries the Eagles squad went from 15 players to 12 in the fourth quarter. However, senior Andrew Evans was able to make plays and lead the offensive total yardage. Evans rushed for 134 yards and had 16 tackles for the night.

“Well I guess you come to a point when you’re losing a game where you say, ‘there’s no hope of me getting out of this’ and so you might as well just start having fun,” Evans said. “For the most part everybody was hitting really hard, but I think the real problem is just that we didn’t have the numbers.”

After Vargas suffered the hit, he had trouble breathing and hurt ribs. Rufi Alday, FC’s trainer, along with ambulance workers, initially said Vargas had broken two ribs and maybe punctured a lung. However, after his trip to the Community Medical Center, where he had an x-ray, cat-scan and was on oxygen support, he left with bruised ribs and able to breathe on his own.

“It was my first time in an ambulance, and I didn’t really know what was going on, so that was kind of scary,” Vargas said. “I just felt really bad, though, that I had left my team and that they then had to play with 14 guys.”

Assistant coach Ervin Hernandez says despite a rough pre-season, he hopes the team will put it behind and push through.

“Overall, this has been a difficult year, but through these trials there is something greater these kids are learning, which is character,” Hernandez said. “Through adversity and perseverance, our football players will realize that how one plays the games, and how one lives will determine the type of person they are. We will just have to keep the faith and have fun playing football.”

The Eagles will next travel to play Riverdale for their season opener, Oct. 15.

FC ESCAPES WITH WIN AGAINST COAST UNION–Oct. 1
The Eagles traveled to Cambria to take on the Coast Union Broncos, and despite Coast Union scoring first, FC took back the lead and continued on to maintain it the entire game. However, the score remained neck and neck, but FC would not let go of it as they finished with their first win, 33-28, Oct. 1.

Senior Danny Ibarra, offensive and defensive lineman, who had one sack and fumble recovery for the night, describes their finish as an excruciating win, but well worth the fight.

“It was a painful win,” Ibarra said,”and we had to work really hard to pull it off. We struggled a lot, had a lot of penalties, but they also had a lot too. We did really good overall though and even though it was painful it was worth it to get a win.”

The high school student body was given the opportunity to travel to the game on a charter bus and also play on the beach at Cayucos prior to attending the JV and varsity game. Maria Montejano, ’11, felt as though their presence at the game incited both JV and varsity to play hard and come out with a win.

“I thought the atmosphere and spirit at the game probably motivated the team,” Montejano said. “It was also just really fun to go and skip school for a day, hang out with friends and go to the football game.”

The Eagles led at half-time, 19-14, and continued to keep their lead in the third quarter as they scored 14 unanswered points by Andrew Evans, ’11, 33-14. However, in the fourth, the Broncos responded back with another 14 points of their own as they narrowed the gap, but FC held them from scoring and won the game, 33-28.

“I think it was awesome because it was the first time we actually played hard the entire game and played four quarters of football never giving up,” Evans said. “Our team was unified throughout the game and we didn’t fall a part on each other. We came out with momentum in the first half and were pumped up and we maintained that throughout the whole game.”

Defensive coordinator, Ervin Hernandez, says the team is beginning to understand the new offensive and defensive set-up, but now with this under their belt, they need to grow from the game.

“It has been a struggle as the defensive coordinator allowing this many points and yardage,” Hernandez said, “but staying on course and being productive will only allow our kids to get better. The past three games, including last night, we have put ourselves behind by allowing big plays and turnovers to happen so we really have to do a better job in preventing the big plays on defense.”

For those who could not attend the game against, KTEA-FM in Cambria, broadcasted it on the Internet. Go to KTEA-FM for more information.

The Eagles will next travel to play Tranquillity, Oct. 8.

STONE RIDGE DEFEATS EAGLES, FORMER COACH RETURNS–Sept. 24
After a highly contested first half, the Knights of Merced shut down the Eagles in the fourth quarter, defeating the host team, 40-26, in coach Mick Fuller’s return to campus, Sept. 24.

The Knights were led by quarterback and running back, Stephen Carrasco, ’13, who rushed for 78 yards, threw for three completions and two touchdowns. He was assisted by senior captain Evan Doss who rushed for 130 yards and two touchdowns.

Junior Chandler Vargas started as running back for the Eagles due to Josiah Ford, ’11, being injured. Despite not being first string, Vargas led the Eagles on the offensive attack, rushing for 129 yards and scoring one touchdown.

“It’s tough when you only have 16 players,” Vargas said, “and you have to play no matter what, even if you get hurt or start to get down on yourself. You have to stay in the whole time and keep fighting. This goes along with our motto, ‘deny self and don’t quit’.”

Fresno Christian Varsity Football Highlights from The Feather Online on Vimeo.

Mick Fuller, head coach of the Knights, has built his program up to a roster of 28 players. He says coming back to FC brings back several memories, but he was mainly excited to see his former players again.

“It was very emotional for me coming back down here to play on the field that I have been hoping Fresno Christian would get for so long,” Fuller said. “I was also so excited to come down, see all these young men, be on the field with them, see how they have grown and improved and are becoming men of God.”

Vargas played for Fuller as a freshman and says he is deeply grateful for all the things he has taught him, but it was rough to take a loss from Fuller.

“It’s hard because I’ve grown up with him [Fuller] in football,” Vargas said. “He taught me a lot about football and how to lift and I love that guy. I would of liked to beat him, but today we just came up short.”

For the Eagles, head coach Bonner Cunnings is looking forward to the away game at Coast Union and says his team will come out strong and put up a fight.

“First of all, I’m real thankful that the whole school is going to come out and support us at Coast,” Cunnings said. “I think we’re going to show up a different team at that game because we kind of got the ball rolling this week and next week it’s going to be much better. So I’m expecting good things.”

The Eagles will next travel to Cambria to take on the Coast Union Broncos, Oct. 1. For those who cannot attend the game, KTEA-FM in Cambria will broadcast it on the Internet starting at 7:30 p.m. Go to KTEA-FM for more information.

STRATHMORE SHUTS OUT FC IN OPENING HOME GAME–Sept. 17
Although it was the first varsity home game, the Eagles failed to put up any points as they lost, 52-0, to the Strathmore Spartans. Also, seniors Andrew Evans and Josiah Ford and junior Martin Moreno were injured early in the game which put the FC squad down to 15 players, Sept. 17.

However, other players stepped up into new positions to keep the Eagles alive, according to senior Seth Ramirez who led FC in receiving with three catches for 24 yards.

“I know we did lose and stuff, but we were crippled by injuries,” Ramirez said. “Especially since we have only 18 guys and when we lose three big leaders [Ford, Evans and Moreno] it shakes everything up in the huddle and everything becomes more confused. I think there were some athletes like Mitchell Weibert who did a good job at stepping up and taking control.”

First year starting varsity quarter back Julio Arellano, led the Spartans with five completions for 69 yards and two touchdown passes. Arellano says his team fought back from a, 24-16, loss to Farmersville the previous week to come out strong against FC. However, Arellano also felt the Eagles showed a tremendous amount of composure in the game.

“After our loss last week we watched film, worked on our assignments and really improved,” Arellano said. “We ended up doing pretty good because of all our hard work. There was also a lot more pride in this school [FC] compared to others, no matter what the score was they always kept trying.”

Alumnus Ryan Swain, ’10, says he enjoyed spending time with friends at the Friday night football games. Since FC now has a real home field it will be even better for the current students.

“I have a bunch of good memories of hanging out with friends and watching the games,” Swain said, “and I think it’s great that we can actually do that at Fresno Christian now. I think the new stadium is absolutely awesome; it’s great that FC now has its own home field.”

Head coach Bonner Cunnings says even though they underwent a tough loss, the team left everything on the field to make the plays and have done so every game.

“The guys that are out there are playing their hearts out and I’m super proud of them,” Cunnings said. “They can’t ever leave the field, so I’m super proud of my guys. However, we now need to get ready, get everybody healthy and get back out there with the guys we got.”

The Eagles will next host Stone Ridge Christian, Sept. 24.

FRESNO BEE HIGHLIGHTS EAGLE FACILITY–Sept. 16
The Fresno Bee published an article about Fresno Christian’s new field, Sept. 16. Read the article by Andy Boogaard: Fresno Christian football has team, facilities to reach goals.

FC LOSES TO LATON–Sept. 10
FC’s defense failed to stop the Laton Mustangs as they rushed for over 430 yards, beating the Eagles, 40-14, Sept. 10.

Laton’s Johnathan Covian, ’11, rushed for 202 yards along with Mason Alves, ’11, rushed for 132 yards as they both scored two touchdowns.

However, while down, 14-0, at the half, FC came out strong in the third quarter to outscore the Mustangs. Senior Andrew Evans ran in two touchdowns to cut Laton’s lead to 20-14. However, the Eagles were unable to sustain the surge as the Mustangs responded with another 20 points in the fourth, winning, 40-14.

“After scoring our two touchdowns a few key players had to leave the game due to injury,” Tyler Krigbaum, ’12, said. “That kind of threw everybody for a loop and everyone was kind of confused when those few key guys came out. We just fell apart. I don’t really know what happened.”

Evans and Josiah Ford, 11′, led the Eagles as Evans rushed for 46 yards and Ford for 132. Evans also had two receptions for 35 yards along with two field goal extra points on his touchdowns.

Assistant coach Ervin Hernandez says small mistakes plagued the team which he felt was the biggest factor in their loss.

“We need to be more disciplined on both sides of the ball,” Hernandez said. “Those mistakes hurt us on offense and we could not stop the bleeding on defense, as they kept finding holes to run on us. The good thing is that we were able to find the mistakes on film, now it is the coaches job to teach and the players’ job to be focused and execute this week in practice.”

The Eagles will next host Strathmore for the first home opener, Sept. 17.

JV FIRST TO PLAY SCRIMMAGE ON HOME FIELD–Sept. 3
The Eagles JV squad took the field in a scrimmage against the Minarets Mustangs at home for the first time, Sept. 3.

Although score was not kept as it was a scrimmage, FC was able to tack on several touchdowns. Freshman Tristian Hernandez led the offensive attack at quarter back making several touchdown passes to Brandon McCormick, ’13, and Noah Belmont, ’14.

“It was great just being on home turf, being able to score and being able to represent Fresno Christian,” Belmont said who received a 35 yard touchdown pass. “I was psyched that I made my first touch down especially since it was on home turf and it made me real excited.”

On the defensive end, they kept Minarets to minimal touchdowns and came up with some big interceptions.

Assistant coach Robert Foshee felt the team was able to learn a lot from the scrimmage and with each upcoming game they play, they will make more and more progress.

“I thought the JV players gained a lot of confidence with the scrimmage,” Foshee said. “Being very inexperienced, every time they step on the field against another team they’ll improve. I thought they stuck together and played tough.”

Both JV and varsity will next travel to play Laton, Sept. 10.

FC PLAYS AWAY IN OPENING SCRIMMAGE–Aug. 27
The Eagles traveled to Mendota to kick off the school year with a scrimmage against the Firebaugh Eagles and Mendota Aztecs. They played both teams in the format: 15 minutes of offense followed by 15 minutes of defense, Aug 27.

Senior running back Josiah Ford led the offensive drive, but took an early hit to the jaw and was out for the rest of the game. Andrew Evans, ’11, and Chandler Vargas, ’12, then took over and knocked in a touchdown for the Eagles.

Assistant coach Ervin Hernandez, says the team lacked consistency, but was adjusting well to the new playbook.

“A good thing is that the scheme on offense and defense is coming together,” Hernandez said. “We brought in a new offensive and defensive playbook, so the kids are getting used to terminology and alignment. We still need to work out responsibilities and techniques, but the main philosophy has been set.”

With two touchdown catches and an interception, junior Martin Moreno says the team needs to work together more and encourage each other instead of tearing one another down.

“We did pretty good, but we get tired and lazy sometimes,” Moreno said. “As a team we need to play better together because we play kind of selfish and yell at each other when someone doesn’t do their job. Overall though we did well because those teams [Mendota and Firebaugh] are better than the ones we’re going to face in league.”

The Eagles will next travel to play Laton, Sept. 10.

For more information on the 2009 football season, check out the Football sport shorts, 2009.

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