Jags stick with what works to take huge win over Escondido

Consistency is a virtue in football, and it was business as usual for the Valley Center Jaguars in a 51–7 win over Escondido on Friday night.
Travis Bernard had another big day carrying the football. Beau Reilly made big plays with his arm and with his legs. The Valley Center defense punished the quarterback, the running back, and whichever Escondido coach was tasked with calling the plays. David Last hit another long field goal and nearly sent each kickoff out of the stadium.
And the same old story added up to another win for the Jags, who are now 6–0 heading into Valley League play this week.
“It was a great team win,” head coach Rob Gilster said after the game. “[Escondido is] good and they’ve got some athletes, but they haven’t found their personality yet. We finished the game really well, but we’ve got to get better at starting, on both sides of the ball.”
The lopsided score came mostly courtesy of Bernard, who had 23 carries for 198 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. The senior tailback scored three touchdowns in the second quarter, then added one late in the third quarter and scored his final touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter before giving way to the backups when the game was firmly in hand.
But Reilly and the passing game provided their fair share of big plays as well, as the senior quarterback completed 11 of 13 passes for 222 yards and a touchdown. The score came midway through the third quarter when Reilly connected with Last on a rollout pass play that turned into an 83-yard catch and run down the sideline to the endzone. Last finished with three catches for 100 yards and a touchdown, while Jean-Marc Brierre added four catches for 59 yards, John Watkins had two receptions for 34 yards, Taylor Oshinski had two catches for 25 yards and Michael McInerny had one catch for seven yards.
On defense, the Jaguars were one play away from their first shutout of the season, but couldn’t stop Escondido quarterback Cruz Navarro on a 53-yard scamper in the third quarter.
The Jags did keep Navarro busy in his own backfield for most of the night, as linebacker Stehly Reden and defensive tackle Dylan Smith each recorded a sack and the rest of the Jaguars consistently hounded the Cougar backfield. To cap off another stellar performance, the unit got a pair of turnovers in the fourth quarter when Mike Rodriguez recovered a fumble and Oshinski intercepted a deep pass to put the game on ice.
“We work hard in practice and we’re always looking to get the goose-egg,” Smith said of the near shutout. “But even after they scored, we came back and didn’t allow them to score again.”
Even Last found a way to one-up his outstanding kicking performances from earlier this season, as he drilled a 51-yard field goal in the third quarter and set a new school record in the process. He finished the night with three field goals—from 28, 51 and 46 yards—and sent each of his ten kickoffs into the endzone for touchbacks.
“That’s a great win for us to keep momentum going for next week,” Reilly said. “We just need to keep it going, especially as it eventually turns into playoffs and CIF. If we can do it, that’s big.”
Escondido got the first possession of the game, and after picking up three first downs, drove into Valley Center territory before turning the ball over on a fake punt pass that fell incomplete on fourth down from the 44.
Valley Center responded with a seven-play drive on its first possession, but couldn’t convert on third and five from the Escondido 11 and settled for a 28-yard field goal by Last.
The Cougars moved backwards on their next drive, as the Jags forced a two-yard loss on first down and Reden came up with a sack for a loss of five on second down. After a run on third down, the Cougars punted and the Jags took over at the Escondido 45.
From there, the Jaguars needed only six plays to get the touchdown, which came on a one-yard plunge by Bernard on the second play of the second quarter.
Leading by ten, the Jags gave up a pair of quick first downs to the Cougars on their next drive, but shut down the attack on a fourth down conversion attempt when defensive end Kenny Thomas stuffed Navarro for a loss on a quarterback run.
Valley Center got a big play on first down after taking over, as Reilly connected with Watson on a 25-yard post pattern to the Escondido 39. Five plays later, Bernard scored again, this time from two yards out, to make it 17–0 with just under seven minutes left before halftime.
The Cougars couldn’t get a first down on the ensuing possession, as Thomas and linebacker Shonta Chaloux combined for the stop on a third down run to force another punt.
The Jags took over on their own 44, but needed only four plays to march 56 yards and score another touchdown. Reilly started the drive with a 39-yard pass to Brierre, and Bernard scored his third touchdown of the first half on a 13-yard run to round out the first half scoring at 24–0 with 3:24 left in the second quarter.
Valley Center got the ball in great field position to start the second half after Escondido tried an onside kick. Smith recovered for the Jags at the Valley Center 45, but after a quick first down, the offense couldn’t keep going and had to settle for a field goal. Last came on a boomed it through from 51 yards out to put the Jags up by 27 with just over ten minutes left in the third quarter.
The Cougars responded with their only score of the night, as they picked up two first downs and advanced near midfield on the first five plays of the drive. The sixth play was a quarterback run that ended up as a 53-yard touchdown to get Escondido on the board, 27–7, with 7:24 left in the third quarter.
But it didn’t take the Jaguars long to answer the score, as Reilly connected with Last for an 83-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the ensuing drive. On the play, Reilly rolled out to his left, found Last open on the corner route and dropped in a nice touch pass to the receiver. Last hauled it in, brushed a would-be tackler aside, and outran the Cougar defense down the sideline for the long score with just over seven minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The Jags forced Escondido into a three and out on the next drive, then took over at their own 31 after a punt. From there, the Jaguars drove 69 yards in seven plays to get in the endzone again, this time on a ten-yard touchdown run from Bernard, to make the score 41–7 with just over two minutes left in the third quarter.
The Jaguars got a big play on defense on the ensuing Escondido possession, as the Cougars picked up two quick first downs and drove into Valley Center territory, but fumbled the ball away on a run up the middle. Linebacker Mike Rodriguez recovered the loose ball at the Valley Center 28 to get the Jaguars back on the attack.
It didn’t take long for the Jags to find the endzone again, as they ran just three plays on 72-yard the scoring drive. Bernard ran for 28 yards on the first play of the drive, then Reilly connected with Watkins for a gain of nine yards before Bernard dazzled the crowd on a counter play with a cutback run for a 35-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Leading 48–7 in the final period, the Jags made sure that the bench players got some playing time, and moved some players around on defense to give them more experience.
On the ensuing drive, the Cougars turned the ball over once again, this time on an outstanding interception by Oshinski, who reacted to a deep pass, drifted over to the sideline from his safety spot and picked it off, barely keeping his feet in bounds to complete the catch at the Escondido 49.
Watkins took over at quarterback for the Jags on the ensuing drive, and after a quick completion to Brierre and a pair of solid runs by Garrett Fiehler, Last came on to kick a 46-yard field goal to cap the scoring at 51–7.
“We’re starting to know our roles on offense better, and that we run to set up the pass,” Reilly said after the game. “We need to start off faster, though, and that’s just as much on me as it is on the rest of these guys. It’s great to get points on our first drive, but we can’t just get a field goal. We need to get the ball and go get a touchdown.”
“We have to do the same thing we always do, and that’s practice hard and get ready for next week,” Smith added. “Our defense played great in the second half, but we don’t want to be known as a second half team. We have to come out fired up in the first half, and we want to be known as a complete team.”
The Jaguars begin Valley League play on Friday with a home game against San Marcos at 7 p.m. The Jags will celebrate homecoming at the game, so come early to be a part of the fun.