Lindsay improves to 7-0 on home turf with first-round win

LINDSAY — It felt like a reunion.

Lindsay had been mired in a month-long funk, dropping two of its last three games while its best players were ailing.

But the entire band was back together Friday night and they didn’t disappoint, burying No. 11 Fresno Christian 42-20.

“We’re back,” senior middle linebacker Tony Perez said.

The No. 6 Cardinals (8-4) improved their home record to 7-0 on the season and move into the Division V quarterfinals where No. 3 Liberty-Madera awaits.

The win was Lindsay’s first playoff victory since 2002.

Lindsay coach Robert Hurtado said he saw a nice flashback to his team’s glory days of September and October with his squad at full strength.

“You saw what Victor (Villarreal) did, you saw what J.D. (Jonathan Duarte) did, Mike (Hernandez) was out there, Gary (Baker) played a fantastic game. It was nice,” Hurtado said. “It’s been a while since we had everybody and you can tell we’re a different team when we have everybody. We are a lot faster when everybody’s healthy.”

Duarte had missed the past two games with a bruised hip, but resumed his regular role of lead running back with a 143-yard, four-touchdown night. Victor Villarreal was key in all three phases of the game as well, starting at safety and slot back. The junior, who had missed the better part of three games late in the season after a concussion against Strathmore, had 73 receiving yards — including a 35-yard touchdown — and consistently had the Cardinals in good field position with tackle-shedding punt returns.

Baker was back at quarterback after missing the last two games with a concussion and tossed for 114 yards and three TDs.

The Eagles (5-6) did draw first blood, though, when 6-foot-3 wide receiver Tim Miller beat Lindsay cornerback Gabriel Rubalcava to the corner of the end zone on a fade pattern, hauling in a 7-yard first-quarter touchdown pass.

But the lanky wideout was virtually invisible in the remainder of the game (he caught just one more pass) as Rubalcava and Ronnie Cortez blanketed him on nearly every pattern.

Hurtado said he anticipated Fresno Christian trying to exploit the height disparity between Miller and his cornerbacks — both under 5-foot-9.

“We knew they would try, it’d be foolish not to, but we’ve got two three-year starters out there,” he said. “They’re small, but they can play.”

Following that early score, the Lindsay defense stiffened and didn’t allow another score until they had a four-touchdown lead in the third stanza.

“Honestly, we just manned up,” Perez said. “We knew we were a good team coming into the playoffs; all it was was just gut-check time. We have an explosive offense, so all we gotta do is just (play) defense. We focused on defense all week long and the defense came through.”

Linebackers Vincent Carlos and Jorge Orozco, and defensive end Eric Lopez consistently got pressure on Eagle quarterback Riley Endicott, forcing more than 30 incompletions on the night.

“The blitzes worked a lot, they put a lot of pressure on them,” Perez said. “We just came out here prepared and ready. We worked on it in all of practice. We already knew their offense and what were their favorite plays and how they were gonna come out on us.”

Offensively, the Cardinals got to run some of their favorite plays. Duarte scored three first-half touchdowns — two rushing, one receiving — from 15, 13 and 11 yards out. Baker found Lopez on a bootleg play in the right corner of the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown while slicing a pass in between two Eagle defenders, allowing Villarreal to score on his third-quarter seam route.

Fellow quarterback Adam Gamboa rotated with Baker but didn’t throw any passes due to a lingering thumb injury. Mike Hernandez, who missed several midseason games, rushed for 88 yards as well.

Lindsay had three turnovers in the third quarter, however, and was flagged for encroachment on eight occasions.

“That’s just our aggressiveness,” Hurtado said. “On film, you can’t hear what kind of (snap) counts they’re running. I noticed in the games that they played against Fowler and Orosi that those teams were jumping offsides. I kind of figured something was up, but I didn’t realize exactly what. We’ll work on it a little bit more.”