BY ADAM WAYBRIGHT
Friday night’s season opener between the Independence Falcons and South High Rebels was deemed a “Dog Fight” by some in attendance. Last season, these teams went down to the wire in Week 1 which resulted in a 53-49 win for IHS at home. This year told a similar story but with an entirely different plot.
The strong defensive stances from both teams throughout the game were the cause of countless turnovers by both sides and a low scoring outing.
Independence and South both had their opening drives come to an end after failing to convert on a pair of 4th downs. The Falcon’s second drive of the game ended in a punt that left South at their 20-yard line. The Rebels' first two plays resulted in no gain and on 3rd & 11 Falcons’ Safety, Zarek Williams picked off Manny Guzman’s pass to put Independence in scoring position. Falcons could not manage to score though after a missed field goal soared low. However, the offense got a chance to redeem themselves after South turned the ball over again after a fumble was recovered by Falcons’ LB Alex Crimmins.
This time Indy succeeded. The senior duo of QB Xavier Ramirez and WR TraVale Shorter connected on a 23-yard pass late in the first quarter to put the Falcons on the board, 6-0.
South’s offense would bounce back on their next drive by kicking it off with a 20-yard run from Senior RB Daniel Lomax and a 10-yard run by him on the play after. The Rebels bullied their way into enemy territory with a collection of scrambles from their halfbacks and capped the drive off with a dive across the goal-line, courtesy of Manny Guzman. South went up 7-6 after the PAT was good.
Both offenses struggled to move the ball the rest of the game after back-to-back scoring drives.
“We made a lot of mistakes tonight, but they're fixable mistakes,” Rebels’ Head Coach Cary Mills said.
South had multiple turnovers in the second half but every time that Independence offense came back on to the field, the Rebels’ defense stayed put.
“Our defense did a great job. Coach Mack (Daron Mackey) really did a good job with those guys this week,” Mills added.
South would go on to defeat Independence for the first time since 2015 by the score of 6-7.
The Rebels will continue their 3-game homestand next week against Delano, whom South hasn’t lost to since 2014.
The Falcons travel up north to Selma next Friday and look to have a repeat of their 47-0 blowout last season.
Photos by Henry Barrios
