Saturday Morning Quarterback: Charter Oak sets up title game next week with 41-28 win over Damien; Amat’s playoff hopes on life support after 17-12 loss at Notre Dame

For quarter updates of tonight’s games, click thread.

The Inland Insider has Sierra League highlights and interviews from Charter Oak and Chino Hills’ win, setting up Thursday’s league title between the two at Chino Hills.

By Fred J. Robledo, Staff Writer
Charter Oak, ranked sixth in the CIF-Southern Section Inland Division, kept its record perfect in the Sierra League with a 41-28 victory over Damien on Friday, setting the stage for next week’s league title against defending champ Chino Hills.
It was kind of bittersweet, however, because sophomore running back Kurt Scoby, who rushed for 89 yards and four touchdowns, injured his ankle late in the fourth quarter and left to the hospital for x-rays. (to continue click thread)

Tonight’s results and game stories
Charter Oak 41, Damien 28 — The greatest show in the SGV dominated, the score says they won by 13, but they were up 34-7 middle of the third quarter. Let’s hope Scoby is OK. Some of the things he did, the Chargers need to make the offense complete. The last thing they need is an chink in the armor now.
Chino Hills 36, South Hills 13 — Limiting South Hills to just 13 is a good sign heading into Charter Oak.
West Covina 40, Rowland 7 — The best thing for the Bulldogs is to have a league championship they can get up for after winning on cruise control the past few weeks.
Bonita 27, Diamond Bar 20, OT — After starting 0-2 and looking like it wasn’t going anywhere, Bearcats very much in the thick of things. If you’re looking for a sleeper in the playoffs, start right here.
Notre Dame 17, Bishop Amat 12 — It was there for the taking. You have to read the story to digest it all, but after getting a gift interception to set up first down at the 12 with 1:58 left, they couldn’t cash in. This is what it comes down too. Bishop Amat needs Alemany and Loyola to win next week, then hope to win a three-way coin flip for the third playoff spot.
El Monte 20, South El Monte 13 — Yes, the Lions can finally play for their first league title since 1979 at Arroyo next week. Great turnaround.
Arroyo 49, Gabrielino 3 — About what you expected, setting the stage for MVL All-the-marbles game with El Monte.
Azusa 41, Gladstone 7 — Aztecs romp again, and will go for fourth straight undefeated league title next week.
La Puente 49, Duarte 7— The Warriors won nine games for the first time in school history and can now win the league title next week at Azusa.
Rancho Cucamonga 34, Glendora 13 — Going in the Tartans still had playoff hopes, but nobody is surprised by the result. Say what you want, but given all the circumstances, they were better than anyone expected.
Workman 33, Ganesha 6 — That’s few times the Lobos put up a lot of points.
Rosemead 32, Mountain View 0 — Keeping their playoff hopes alive, Panthers get a blowout win to impress Mid-Valley posters.
Pomona 35, Wilson 21 — Much closer than expected, give it up for the Cats, they’re not laying down by any means.
Diamond Ranch 29, Walnut 14 — Coach Roddy said they would be playing for the league title after beating Bonita to open league. They didn’t do it as easily as he said, but they did get to the title game as promised.
Claremont 35, Ayala 34, OT — A huge loss for Ayala, but if the Bulldogs beat Damien next week, they each would have two wins and the Bulldogs could get in the playoffs. That’s providing South Hills beats Claremont.
Sierra Vista 62, Bassett 0 — The Dons have had a few games where their offense rolled like this. Just not enough of them.
Nogales 18, Baldwin Park 13 — Beating Northview and Baldwin Park back-to-back is a big achievement for the Nobles, who will someday compete for the Valle Vista title. But not yet.

TDro’s highlights for Bishop Amat at Notre Dame, and the wild finish.

Watch the postgame game discussion with all of us on TribXtra

“We’ll see, they (trainers) think there might be a crack or something,” Charter Oak coach Lou Farrar said of Scoby’s injury. “On a cold wet night, wet field, anything can happen. We’ll have to wait and see how he is.”
It was another solid night for Chargers quarterback Travis Santiago, who threw for 244 yards and a touchdown and also scored on fumble return.
But it was Scoby’s night.
He scored his fourth touchdown on a 12-yard run in the third-quarter to extend the Chargers’ lead to 34-7.
“He’s a bunch of help, a great athlete and a great kid,” Santiago said of Scoby. “He competes and tries his hardest on every play. And if I didn’t have his blocking, I wouldn’t be passing like this.”
Charter Oak improved to 8-1 and 4-0 in the Sierra League while Chino Hills improved to 6-3 and 4-0 with a 36-13 win over South Hills to set up next week’s title game at Chino Hills.
“Hopefully it’s not this wet, but we’ll get ready for them and see what happens,” Farrar said of Chino Hills.
Damien (6-3, 2-2) rallied late in the fourth to make the final score look more respectable on quarterback Gage Pucci’s 39-yard TD pass to Logan Tracey and 27-yard TD pass to Josh Savage with just over a minute left in the game.
But the Spartans hurt themselves with three turnovers, and failing to score late in the second quarter trailing 28-7 with a chance to cut the lead in half. But they couldn’t punch it in after setting up a first-and-goal with less than two minutes until the break, allowing the Chargers to take a 21-point lead at half.
Pucci threw for 288 yards and three touchdowns, but also had two interceptions. Jalen Castille ran well too, rushing for 119 yards and a touchdown.
But Damien will likely have to beat Ayala next week to earn third place and make the playoffs.
“The beginning of the game we didn’t tackle and they’re a big play team with great athletes,” Damien coach Greg Gano said. “We missed some tackles that put us behind, but we’ll be okay. We have to win next week to get to the playoffs then anything can happen. But they have a good team and that quarterback (Santiago) is special.”
Charter Oak usually doesn’t need help on offense, but got some to go up 7-0 on its first series.
After Scoby took a handoff from Santiago and cut upfield for a good gain he fumbled, but it bounced straight to Santiago and he took it the rest of the way untouched for a 69-yard score.
On the first play of the ensuing series, Damien struck right back, Pucci delivering a strike to Savage down the right side for a 78-yard touchdown to tie the game, 7-7.
The Spartans got the ball back and tried going deep again to Savage, but Aaren Vaughns picked off Pucci.
Charter Oak made them pay. After Santiago completed a 23-yard pass to Vaughns, Scoby capped the drive with a 27-yard touchdown run for a 14-7 lead.
Scoby continued to burn the Spartans. His nifty 31-yard run set up his one-yard touchdown run to extend the Chargers’ fist-quarter lead to 21-7.

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