South Hills High School Varsity Football Team

BALDWIN PARK – There was so much talk about transfers and who was leaving South Hills High School over the summer that it was easy to forget the Huskies football team still had plenty of weapons at their disposal.

Junior Jamel Hart rushed for 109 yards and a touchdown Friday night before leaving early in the third quarter with cramps. But then along came senior Jordan Gutierrez, who rushed for 183 yards and a touchdown on just eight carries as the Huskies wore down host Baldwin Park in the second half for a 38-17 victory.

South Hills piled up 373 rushing yards and quarterback Vincent Hernandez was steady, too. He threw for 147 yards and two touchdowns in the Huskies’ season opener.

“We were pleased we were able to run zone and keep moving the ball on the ground,” Huskies coach Steve Bogan said. “That kind of mixes things up.

“We were able to run and throw the ball. We had seven penalties in the first half and made some mistakes. When we eliminate the mistakes, we’re going to be fine.”

Bogan knew what to expect from Hart, the headline returning back.

But Gutierrez, who had gains of 27, 37, 39, 33, 27 and 26 yards, gives the Huskies a dynamic backfield punch.

“That kid has great vision,” Bogan said. “He’s special, you’ll see a lot more of him.”

Baldwin Park dropped to 0-2 after faltering in the second half again. The Braves lost a 16-0 halftime lead in a 35-29 loss to Rowland last week.

The Braves led 10-9 with 3:56 left in the half after Demetrius Jackson caught a 13-yard touchdown pass from Mario Rodriguez.

South Hills took a 12-10 halftime lead after Gutierrez’s 25-yard field goal, then broke it open early in the third quarter.

Josh De La Gardelle caught the first of two touchdown passes from Hernandez, hauling in a 30-yard touchdown for an 18-10 lead.

Later in the third, De La Gardelle caught an 11-yard touchdown pass from Hernandez, pushing the Huskies’ lead to 25-10 with 3:18 left in the third.

“We wanted to come out and play a good game,” Gutierrez said. “We wanted to let people know that South Hills isn’t going anywhere.”

Rodriguez finished with good numbers for the Braves, completing 14 of 19 pass attempts for 135 yards. Jackson did a little of everything, scoring twice and finishing with eight catches for 65 yards. He also rushed for 26 yards on 10 carries.

Next up, South Hills will host West Covina on Thursday at Covina District Field.

Read more: Fred Robledo – http://www.sgvtribune.com/preps/ci_16048330#ixzz0zDppmt6k

You can add South Hills High School football coach Steve Bogan to the list of those who were impressed by Baldwin Park’s showing against Rowland last week.

Baldwin Park jumped to a 16-0 lead in the first half against the Raiders before falling apart in the second half and losing 35-29. It was a performance good enough to put a scare into Bogan, whose Huskies visit Baldwin Park on Friday night in their season opener.

“They played a great first half,” Bogan said. “Coach (James) Heggins will know more about what happened in the second half after watching the films. It just seemed like one half belonged to Baldwin Park and one half belonged to Rowland. But they do a lot of things we need to stop. They have got some things going.”

Unlike recent years, when South Hills scheduled itself a difficult scrimmage, the Huskies will come into the game untested after plans for a scrimmage with Colony fell through.

South Hills tried to make up for it by playing a mock game against itself.

“This will sort of be our first game/ scrimmage,” Bogan said. “It’s kind of a mix. We hope we don’t have too many first-game screw-ups. You can only assess so much in practice. We’ll learn about ourselves in our first two games.”

One area Bogan is hoping to learn something about is wide receiver, where the Huskies won’t have Jamie Canada, because of a knee injury. Canada had surgery recently and his status for the season remains in doubt.

Read more: Aram Tolegian – http://www.sgvtribune.com/preps/ci_16027919#ixzz0zBtu9N3G