Escondido Cougars 21, Valley Center Jaguars 38

This Valley League match-up was everything it was expected to be – plus a little more. It was Valley Center’s homecoming game, and they were hosting the Escondido Cougars. The Cougars (1-8) came out strong against Valley Center (6-3) from the first snap on, but a couple missed tackles here and there made the score 38-21 Jaguars.

Before the game even started, Escondido senior, Bo Nelson, was surprised with one of the best gifts ever – his dad. Sargent Nelson, Bo’s dad, has been overseas for the past 10 months serving in the army, and returned today to surprise Bo and his older sister Cathy, who was an Escondido Alumni. Bo is currently a senior at Escondido High School, and Sargent Nelson has only been able to watch him participate in 4 games throughout his high school career. He was very excited to be able to see his son out on the field tonight under those Friday night lights. Sargent Nelson will only be here for a couple weeks before he has to return overseas.

After an elaborate float parade for the homecoming ceremony, the game finally started. What many people expected to be a one-sided game, actually turned into back-and-forth nail biter. It was easy to tell that the Jaguars were a little stunned on how hard the Cougars came out ready to play. The first quarter was almost scoreless, but Valley Center Kicker, Rod Rodriguez, kicked a 29-yard field goal to make the score 3-0 at the end of the first.

Valley Center senior, Jake Newman, stunned the crowd with an 82-yard touchdown run to start off the second quarter. The Cougars answered back with a 1-yard touchdown run from Austin Reiman. This brought the score to 10-7 Valley Center at the end of the first half.

At the start of the second half, Valley Center stepped up their game tremendously. Reilly Rhett kept finding teammates in the end zone and the Jaguars defense was playing tremendously. The Cougars would not give up against the Jaguars, but were not able to score enough by the time the last second clicked off the scoreboard in the fourth. The final score was 38-21 Valley Center.

As we head into Week 11 of The Prep Pigskin Report, most teams are playing their last game of the regular season. Valley Center hosts Orange Glen High School (4-5) next week for their last game of the regular season. Escondido hosts their cross-town rival, San Pasqual High School (3-6) for their last game of the regular season. Make sure you tune into The Prep Pigskin Report for highlights from every game in San Diego County next Friday night at 10:30 PM. 

PREVIEW: Week 10 of The Prep Pigskin Report brings you a Valley League match-up between the Escondido Cougars (1-7) and the Valley Center Jaguars (5-3). The Cougars scored their first win of the season last week against Orange Glen High School, beating them 38-13. The Jaguars traveled to Rancho Buena Vista last week and beat the Longhorns, in what was a close game, 28-17.

This week at Valley Center, the Jaguars will host the Cougars for their homecoming game. Last year when these two teams played each other, the Jaguars shut out the Cougars in the second half to beat them 27-13. Escondido is 2-3 against the Jaguars in the past 10 years, with the last 3 match-ups being losses.

Valley Center has no injuries this week, which means the Jaguars will have a full roster against the Cougars. Escondido on the other hand has had some injuries the past couple weeks, but no word yet on whether these players will be suiting up yet for Friday night.

Will the Jaguars win their homecoming game Friday night, or will the Escondido Cougars upset them and come out with the win? Travel on out to Valley Center Friday night to watch these two teams battle it out at 7:00 PM. If you can’t make it, make sure to tune into The Prep Pigskin Report on KUSI News at 10:30 PM to catch the highlights from the game.