This Week in Hacienda League Football

Last Friday was a bye-week for the Diamond Bar Brahmas, while the Diamond Ranch Panthers were pumped up for their homecoming game against Los Altos.

Diamond Ranch prepared for their homecoming game with a huge rally the night before. The annual Black Out Rally filled the Diamond Ranch gymnasium to capacity as the lights were turned off for this laser light spectacular. Video from this amazing rally can be seen on the website Sportscenetv.net .

Then, on Friday night it was game time for the Panthers as they would face the Los Altos Conquerors. The game was close with the score 14-7 going into halftime. In the second half, it was Los Altos that eventually scored more points and took the 27-14 victory over the Panthers. Game highlights, stats and post game interview with head coach Roddy Layton can be seen on the Sportscenetv.net website.

Diamond Ranch (2-1) will play the Rowland Raiders (0-2) this Friday night and the Raiders are winless in league play. Rowland recently lost 38-26 in their game against Walnut and lost 28-12 against Los Altos. Coming off their bye-week, the Diamond Bar Brahmas (0-2) are playing the Walnut Mustangs (2-1) this Friday in the traditional Branding Iron game and looking to get their first win in league play.

Walnut had a big league game victory over the Los Altos Conquerors, which makes them the only team to give Los Altos a mark in the loss column. Mustangs head coach Mike O'Shields has a strong offense with quarterback Chris Mendez who was 10 for 16 with 139 yards total passing and with two touchdowns. Also, making the Walnut offense dangerous is their running game. Devin Brown rushed for 164 yards total on 32 carries in the Mustangs victory over Walnut last Friday.

You can hear recaps of the last weeks games, an interview with Brahmas head coach Ryan Maine about the upcoming Branding Iron game, and much more on the Prep Sports Podcast on the website Sportscenetv.net .

Now that league play has begun, the games are all going to be tough and the Hacienda League is really up for grabs as all the teams have playoff potential. These teams have players with great skills and most of all sportsmanship. One other factor that sometimes gets lost in the mix is that these high school athletes are students first. Without the academic accomplishments in the classroom that these athletes achieve, there would not be an athletic side because they would not meet the grade point average requirement to participate in sports. So, to recognize the academic acheivements or these athletes, there is a weekly Scholar Athlete(s) of the Week video segment that is produced to recognize these athletes who are doing well in their academics. This week we are recognizing two of Diamond Ranch's football players and this can be seen on the Sportscenetv.net website. As we move into week seven of the high school football season, be sure to keep up with the latest in high school football by reading my blog and visiting Sportscenetv.net