Spartans aim for school's 3rd Valley title

Strathmore coach Jeromy Blackwell paid homage to former Fresno State football coach Jim Sweeney with the use of a fitting quote: “The games you remember are the games in December.”

For the first time in any of the current Spartans’ careers, No. 2 Strathmore will be playing in the final month of the year in a slightly more important game — the Division VI Valley championship against No. 5 Orange Cove.

“We told these guys, ‘If you remember any football games, it’ll be this one,’” Blackwell said. “They’re excited.”

The Spartans can thank Orange Cove for upsetting the No. 1 seed Tranquility in the semifinals and setting up a rematch on Strathmore’s own turf. Blackwell’s squad lost to the Titans, 28-24, on Oct. 2 when Orange Cove erupted for 13 points in the fourth quarter for the comeback win, which was followed by some rather offensive gloating.

“There were some things that were said post-game that were probably out of line coming from the people up at Orange Cove,” Blackwell said. “After the game they were very excited like, ‘Oh, we can’t wait to see you again in the playoffs.’ Well, I’m glad they’re excited because we’re excited too.”

As if they needed extra motivation besides revenge, the Spartans will be playing for just their third Valley title in school history — the other two coming in 1992 and 1998 as Division V champions.

But if they play the way they did on Oct. 2, Blackwell’s boys may be in for a monumental disappointment.

“We turned the football over too many times, we didn’t bring the fire and we had a major letdown,” Blackwell said. “This is one of those few opportunities where you get to fix all the things and make a new statement.”

Blackwell believes the one loss against Orange Cove meant the difference between receiving a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. Not that it matters anyway, since Tranquility is out of the picture.

“We anticipated the No. 1 seed, but the Orange Cove game, I’m sure, soured our chances,” Blackwell said. “Everything worked out the way we wanted — we could get a Valley championship at home as a No. 2 seed versus someone we’ve got a little bit of animosity towards.”

Running back Jesse Soria will attempt to channel the hatred he used against Lindsay toward the Titans, who held him to 107 rushing yards, well below his average of 181 per game.

The prolific back is just 12 yards shy of the 2,000 mark, and since it’ll be his last game, Blackwell plans to use him to his limits.

“Jesse hasn’t had more than 25 carries in a game, but I would guess 30, 35 carries wouldn’t be out of the question,” Blackwell said. “This could be the last game for 20 of our players.”

Quarterback Geostan Duffin enjoyed a solid game against Orange Cove with 141 passing yards and a touchdown. The senior has 745 yards and six TDs on the year.

Though Strathmore lost receiver and defensive back Mario Lemus (out of the season with a broken arm), Blackwell said the defense has made adjustments and has been thriving since.

Losing Lemus hurts, as he had seven catches for 77 yards against the Titans, but Blackwell says the Spartans have made up for it in other ways.

Emilio Gutierrez replaced Lemus and Alex Guzman returned to his spot at defensive end, sliding Dain Madrigal to tackle, where he is now one of the team leaders in tackles with 40.

Linebacker David Sanchez leads the team with 67.

“Our defense is our strong point,” Blackwell said. “We can defend the run.”

And they’ll have to in order to shut down Orange Cove stud Jose Ochoa, who romped through the Tranquility ‘D’ for 238 yards en route to a 42-23 victory. Ochoa has 1,570 yards on the season, but the Spartans gave him fits as they held him to just 93 yards that night — a feat they hope to repeat again.

“You stop Ochoa, you can win the football game,” said Blackwell, who enters his first championship game as a coach. “We’re not making excuses for the last loss; we just plan to win this one.”