LA VERNE — There is never a dull moment with Damien quarterback Isaiah Arriaza, and he nearly led the Spartans to one heck of an improbable comeback.
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Rancho Cucamonga’s Tyree Wilson (3) runs the ball against Damien during the Baseline League opener at Damien High School in La Verne on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)
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Rancho Cucamonga’s Tyree Wilson (3) runs the ball against Damien during the Baseline League opener at Damien High School in La Verne on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)
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Arriaza’s 40-yard Hail Mary as time expired to Travon Garrison stunned Rancho Cucamonga, leaving the Spartans a 2-point conversion away from sending the game to overtime.
But Rancho Cucamonga came up with the stop as Arriaza’s game-tying pass sailed away, allowing the Cougars to hold on for a 24-22 victory.
Damien’s Travon Garrison catches a 40 yard Hail Mary as time expires. They will go for 2 and the tie pic.twitter.com/LhheBIB8nD
— Fred J. Robledo 👨🏻💻 (@SGVNSports) October 4, 2025
Rancho Cucamonga’s James Strong finished with 198 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns, and quarterback Jacob Chambers threw for 154 yards and two touchdowns.
Strong said he was stunned as the Spartans had come back after trailing 24-9 in the fourth quarter, and had a chance to send it to overtime.
“I can’t lie, I couldn’t watch,” Strong said. “I was scared and my heart was beating the whole time. You know how it went last year (Damien winning), so we came into this game knowing we needed to win.”
Rancho Cucamonga’s James Strong finished with 198 all purpose yards and two touchdowns. But he said he couldn’t watch the final play as they held on for a 24-22 win over Damien pic.twitter.com/tIV9Gnta5e
— Fred J. Robledo 👨🏻💻 (@SGVNSports) October 4, 2025
Rancho Cucamonga had been waiting to win a big one down the stretch, and did just enough to hold off a furious Damien rally.
The Cougars entered with just one win, but they had been on the short-end of some barn-burning close losses to Murrieta Valley, Orange Lutheran and Chapparal.
The Cougars’ speedy backs of Strong and Tyree Wilson, along with Chambers, who had several big runs, combined to finish with 236 rushing yards.
“We finally put the nail in the coffin,” Strong said. “Those other teams we played were great, but we needed this one.”
The Spartans looked out of it for three quarters, then lighting struck.
Trailing 24-9, Arriaza completed a 6-yard touchdown pass to Gavin Williams with 9:19 left to cut the Cougars’ lead to eight points.
The Spartans got the ball back after stopping the Cougars on a fourth-down play at their own 18 with 5:22 left, and finished with the Hail Mary.
But it just wasn’t enough as Arriaza finished with 205 yards passing to go with two touchdowns and an interception. Malachi McFarland rushed for 86 yards and a TD.
Damien coach James Stewart wasn’t surprised by the Spartans furious fourth quarter comeback. But he wishes he would have made adjustments earlier after losing to Rancho Cucamonga, 24-22 pic.twitter.com/A77PTwgqY4
— Fred J. Robledo 👨🏻💻 (@SGVNSports) October 4, 2025
“Our boys are resilient. I’m very proud how they competed in the second half,” Damien coach James Stewart said. “I’m really upset with myself. I feel like I waited too long to make some adjustments in the first half. We got it right in the second half, but damn, if I could have just done it earlier. We just ran out of time.”
Damien (5-1, 0-1), which was in the midst of a historic season and had been averaging 31 points a game, simply couldn’t match the Cougars’ (2-4, 1-0) athleticism for most of the game.
“They did a good job,” Stewart said of the Cougars. “They did a good job over the bye week of adding some wrinkles from their defense to their offense, and it caused us some confusion early on, so hats off to them. They did a wonderful job. I feel like I got outcoached tonight.”
The Cougars overwhelmed the Spartans in the first half, particularly at the end of the half.
Rancho Cucamonga used half the clock on its opening drive, using nine plays before settling on Romano Annecchini’s 38-yard field goal, which he booted through like a wobbly knuckleball for a 3-0 lead with 6:12 left in the first quarter.
Arriaza was moving the ball down the field with 21- and 22-yard passes, and it looked like they would go in front. But Arriaza threw a ball in traffic between two defenders and the Cougars’ Nate Mensah intercepted it and returned it near midfield.
It was costly.
The Cougars put together several good runs, and turned the turnover into points on Strong’s 2-yard touchdown run to surge ahead, 10-0.
The Spartans needed a big play to get themselves going and got it. McFarland found a seam and broke free for a 72-yard touchdown with 1:33 left in the quarter to cut the Cougars’ lead to 10-6 after the missed extra point.
Damien looked like it might take its first lead, but instead the game changed dramatically in the final minutes of the half.
Damien was stopped short on a fourth-and-2 at the Cougars’ 5-yard line with just over four minutes left.
Three plays later, Chambers hit Strong on a screen near the sidelines, and he ran past everyone for a 76-yard touchdown to extend their lead to 17-6 with 3:49 left until half.
It got worse.
Chambers provided an exclamation point to the half with a 19-yard touchdown pass to Tyree Wilson with nine seconds left to give the Cougars a commanding 24-6 lead at the break.
The Spartans had a great chance to get themselves back in it after Daylan Stovell returned a punt the Cougars 9. But the Spartans couldn’t punch it in and had to settle for Dillon Mackie’s 30-yard field goal to trim Rancho’s lead to 24-9.
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