RIVERSIDE — Everywhere you look…
Those three words started the theme song to the television show “Full House.” And everywhere you looked Saturday night at RCC’s Wheelock Stadium, Riverside Poly senior defensive tackle Benji Matthews was in the backfield, making life difficult for Redlands East Valley quarterback Isaac Vitela.
Matthews led an opportunistic Bears defense that forced three turnovers with six sacks as Poly scored 20 straight points over a stretch from the second and third quarters to defeat the Wildcats 20-14.
“Our defensive line did a great job of getting pressure against a very athletic quarterback but it takes a great secondary to finish those plays and they kept us in the game until our offense figured out a couple of things,” Poly coach Jaron Gilbert said. “Each week we’re getting a bit better and that’s all I can ask for with two weeks until league play starts and two city rivals before that.”
It was a scoreless game after a quarter with Poly’s Michael Gaines coming up with an interception on the Wildcats’ first series and Matthews recording the first sack of his night in that quarter for the Bears (2-1).
“If he can roll out he can extend the play and our defensive ends deserve a ton of credit for the job they did in keeping him (Vitela) contained, giving me chances to get back there,” Matthews said. “This team holds each other to a high standard and we didn’t live up to it against Vista del Lago, but we’re putting things together now and ready for a tough stretch of football.”
REV’s Hunter Goettel got the Wildcats (2-1) on the board with a 5-yard touchdown run 58 seconds into second quarter play, giving his team a 7-0 lead.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, that would be their only score until 1:05 left in the fourth quarter, when Vitela found Nathan Gibson from seven yards out to make it a 20-14 Bears lead.
In between, Bears quarterback Marjok Gustafson threw touchdown passes of 55, 23, and 53 yards as Poly’s offense got into gear.
“Bringing the pride and competitiveness back to this program is big for me as an alum and I can see our group embracing that challenge,” Wildcats coach Kristian King said. “We’re trending in the right direction but we still need to be tougher, knowing just how tough CBL football can be.”
Poly will play at King on Saturday night in a battle of city rivals, while REV visits Sonora on Thursday.
