Desert Valley Blitz
Welcome to Desert Valley Blitz – the podcast dedicated to spotlighting our local tackle football scene. From the youth leagues to Friday night lights and everything in between, we’re bringing you the stories, players, and coaches that make the desert gridiron special.
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Desert Valley Blitz
EP#2-Week One Wonders: Breaking Down Desert Football's Season Openers
Football season has arrived in the Coachella Valley, and Desert Valley Blitz delivers a comprehensive breakdown of all the opening week action across local high schools.
The Desert Empire League flexed its collective muscle with Shadow Hills dominating the Mayor's Cup against Indio, Palm Desert looking sharp in their victory over Brawley, and Xavier Prep cruising to a convincing win against Linfield Christian. Most impressively, Palm Springs showed tremendous resilience in a double-overtime thriller that came down to a single play when it mattered most.
Desert Mirage stole the headlines with an eye-popping 70-point offensive explosion that featured running back Omar Martinez scoring an incredible eight touchdowns in a single game. Meanwhile, Desert Hot Springs continued building on last season's success with a solid opening victory, and Desert Christian Academy pulled off an impressive win against 29 Palms despite being a significantly smaller school.
We dissect the X's and O's behind these performances, from Xavier's press-bail technique in the secondary to Yucca Valley's 4-2-5 defensive scheme with their defensive ends in two-point stances. These tactical insights reveal how local coaches are adapting their systems to maximize their players' talents.
Looking ahead to week two, several compelling matchups await, including our Game of the Week: Rancho Mirage visiting Coachella Valley in a clash between DEL and DVL contenders. Both teams feature explosive offenses that should produce fireworks, while other intriguing games include Xavier Prep at Desert Hot Springs and Palm Desert traveling to face a tough El Centro squad.
Subscribe to Desert Valley Blitz for weekly coverage of all the action, player spotlights, and tactical breakdowns of the most exciting high school football season in years. Have a player or coach you'd like featured? Email us at info@desertvalleyblitz.com!
#highschoolfootball #coachellavalley #football #mayorscup #indiohighschool #shadowhillshighschool #palmdeserthighschool #laquintahighschool #coachellavalleyhighschool #palmspringshighschool #xavierprep #ranchomiragehighschool #cathedralcityhighschool #desertmiragehighschool #desertchristianacademy #desertchapel #deserthotspringshighschool #yuccavalleyhighschool #29palmshighschool
welcome back everyone. This is an exciting time at desert valley blitz because the season is here and today we're going to do our weekly wrap-up of week one and kind of go over the scores and just give you guys a little bit of insight of what we're seeing out there on the gridiron this week. So hey, coach Josh, how are you doing today?
Speaker 2:man, I'm good.
Speaker 1:Are you ready to do this? I am. You watched some games. You watched some games this weekend. I watched around three games. Yeah, I got some time.
Speaker 2:I watched half of the Palm Desert game, the first half, a little bit of the Xavier game and I watched the whole Yucca Valley game.
Speaker 1:Okay, a little bit of the Xavier game and I watched the whole Yucca Valley game. Okay, so because you're scouting, for La Quinta already?
Speaker 2:Is that what's going on?
Speaker 1:Maybe, maybe maybe You're on the payroll of La Quinta still. But so we'll start with the game of the week that everybody was talking about, and it was an in-city rivalry of the city of Indio, the Mayor's Cup. That's the game that I attended and I, kind of as a raja, I'll tell you, I'm already kind of I'm biased as to go into that game. I wanted to see indio succeed and it's a funny story. I my son had a, my son had practice that day, so we kind of got there. I was like, okay, we left practice early, we're gonna get there about five minutes into the first quarter.
Speaker 1:Should be ready to roll right, yeah well, when I roll up five minutes into the first quarter it's already 21 to nothing. So the score was already kind of getting away from Indio and I believe Reef from Shadow Hills shout out to Reef. I've seen that kid play. For a long time he's been making big plays for Shadow Hills. Yeah, he ran back to kickoff and I think that was basically the backbreaker for Indio. Let him kind of know that, hey, this is not going to be your day and I think the guy, Coach Palmer, over there at Shadow Hills did a good job getting the kids ready and he should give a game ball to the Desert Sun because the Desert Sun one of those guys picked Shadow Hills to lose that game to Indio. I don't know if you're aware of that, so I'm sure that didn't sit well in the Shadow shadow.
Speaker 2:He probably pinned it up in the locker room.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they gave him some gave him some locker room material for shadow. It was to be just a little bit more motivated to come into that game. And then it showed man because when, from the moment I got there, it was just, you know, shadow hills was put on a pretty dominating performance. I mean, they were running, throwing, doing, doing, doing whatever they wanted to, and Indio didn't really have any answers. So you know it's, but there's always a silver lining, right?
Speaker 2:coach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, always a silver lining.
Speaker 2:I was your friend though, man. Yeah, when I was a kid they were. That was the team, right, that was the team Legends I looked up to when I was a kid played for that team. Well, I mean, there was the first cif. I went to the norco uh playoff game. So did I. I was an eighth grader getting getting ready to enroll in india.
Speaker 1:I think I didn't even have to pay, I was so young, right right, that's, that's, you know, kind of the one of the reasons I wanted to go to that school was that norco game. But um, but you know, I think the silver lining for for everybody is that you know this, this season's a marathon, it's not a sprint there's some good teams, teams yeah it's a marathon, though, and you can start.
Speaker 1:It's not how you start, it's how you finish. Indio should probably take that film and just cut it up and pick a few things that they like and then throw it away.
Speaker 1:You know, throw it away, because that was probably one of the best teams you're going to see all year and you know there's always going to be room, don't, I believe is is not not a powerhouse team. So we should have some positive, positive news coming out of Indio. But you know, like I said, it's it's the season's a marathon. Right, it's going to it's it's going to be a long season. Yeah, there's going to be improvement. Um, I think on the shadow Hill side those guys look excellent, but I think, for them as well, they almost need to throw that tape away too, because you know, you know how it goes, coach, when your kids have a real good performance, sometimes that next week they're coming in flat yeah.
Speaker 1:They think they're world beaters. And then you run into you.
Speaker 2:Almost don't like that as a coach.
Speaker 1:I hated that as a coach, because now they're not working at practice, they think they've already got everything. And you know, the old, one old coach used to tell me you're never as good as you think and you're never as bad as you think. And I think early in, early in the season, that's a that's. That's a, that's a big rule to live by. You're never as good as you think you are and you're never as bad as you think. It's somewhere in the middle right. So for shadow hills it's it's just getting getting that out of your system as well and saying, hey, we gotta, we gotta compete for this del championship. And I think they, they think they got the team to do it. I think the desert sun kind of picked them to kind of finish in the bottom of the division and I think that, after what I saw, they still got some pretty good talent at shadow Hills.
Speaker 2:They fly around, they always do.
Speaker 1:Defensively they're pretty good. They've got some real good skill guys. You know there's a lot of there's a lot of talent there, so it's going to be real interesting. I think it's a good, good start, good start for shadow Hills, not a great start for Indio, but, like I said, it's a marathon, not a sprint, right? So what, uh, what'd you see in your games that?
Speaker 2:you checked out. I watched the first half of the Palm desert game. Um, uh, defensively, as advertised they're.
Speaker 1:They're nice, They've ran that system a few years They've got a bunch of returners on defense, right yeah and they're big up front and they get after it. They were cramping up a little bit but you know, Always in the seat you got to have that pickle juice on the sideline man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, get those electrolytes before the game. Not halftime Right, but defensively they're flying around. But even on offense I think they're going to be better than they were last year.
Speaker 1:Because they lost to Brawley last year, correct? Yeah, and Brawley's a good, brawley's a tough opener. It's a football city, it's a football town. I remember in Indio, every year we seemed to always go down there to Brawley and open up the season. You had to prepare for that. Veer A veer, yeah, do they still run the veer?
Speaker 2:Do they still run it? They had to open it up since then. Right, they looked a little sloppy, I mean really. Well, first, first game, you know first game Um, yeah, they were I. But were they sloppy? Or was Palm Desert's defense just that good? So kind of got in their head they couldn't do nothing and started making mistakes. But there was a few fumbles early. Um, palm Desert took advantage of it uh turn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like a little five-yard out and the guy was on the guy's hip pocket and he saw the quarterback throw and just took it to the house. All right, yeah, offensively for Palm Desert. I think they're going to be better. You know they run that spread system, but they want to run the ball.
Speaker 1:They spread you out to run the ball.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they want to. Uh, they spread you out to run the ball. Yeah, they, they like to run the ball. They run that zone, they run the um counter. Um, they got a pretty um, uh, nifty, nifty offense. I actually like it. They've been running it for a while. Um, I did see him hit some wider receiver screens, which I'm a big fan of uh, doing, um, being a wider receiver coach, um, so I hope they keep with that. But, um, yeah, I think palm does can be. Really, they're going to be at the top of the league for sure, right, right.
Speaker 1:So that final score for Palm desert was a 23, 12. So that's a pretty, it's a pretty good performance. Yeah, Last year I believe they went in there and lost a pretty handily to Brawley. So I think, uh, that we got two DEL teams that kind of showed up up and say hey, we're gonna be in the mix this year.
Speaker 2:I'll you know speaking of which, xavier. I mean, they look good, they were running and that's another game. Yeah uh, running back. What running back's name? Uh, is it costa, oh yeah the sophomore uh, yeah, he's, is it robert?
Speaker 1:he was running hard, yeah he's, he's pretty good man, he's pretty good he's he's a. He's been on the scene for a long time. I know he was a. He was a u-star. Anderson acosta.
Speaker 2:Anderson acosta yeah, so, um, they and you know taylor pope's their second year. He's the offensive coordinator last year. Um, I think, uh, he's gonna do a lot better job this year. Uh, he's actually a lakinta alumni. Shout out lakinta oh nice, uh, I actually coached him when he was, you know, when he was there.
Speaker 1:So uh off your uh yeah for your coaching lineage.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know a little bit, you know, I think I was JV back then, but he he moved from receiver to quarterback and he did a really good job once he was at varsity. So I think he's just going to. I think they're going to be better. They're, xavier's always good at defense. I mean. They run a very good system. Their DNs play really good. The good uh, the, the secondary, plays a press bell technique and at the high school level that's kind of tough to deal with, that receiver quarterback because you, you know, you got like like an example, you got a hitch called um and they come up pressed. You can't run a hitch against uh press. So you check it and whatever your signal is to to go downtown and then all of a sudden they're bailing and then as a, as a, as a high school kid, you're like, oh shoot, what do I do?
Speaker 2:right so, um, you have to have a you know, some type of automatic system down to deal with that or you got to run some stuff that'll work on both. Um, uh, from the offense, but defensively, xavier's always in top two if you, if you look back the last few years offensively, they get that offense going. Man, I think Taylor's going to.
Speaker 1:Well, they got that quarterback Kingston, who's a pretty good athlete back there.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, he's a good.
Speaker 1:I've actually had the chance to meet that guy. He's a really good kid. I think he's got a real bright future. So, xavier, the thing with Xavier is I always got top-line talent. It's just. It's where it gets Xavier. They're not rolling with two, three deep. They've got top line talent that can beat anybody, but they got to stay healthy, and that's usually the case with Xavier, so that's another team that put on a great performance. I think their final score was let's see here, xavier. They won pretty handily, 46-14 over Linfield Christian.
Speaker 2:It's hard to gauge early in the season how good these wins are. Sometimes you look back at a win or loss at week eight, and you look back and you're like, geez, we beat that team. They're eight and one right now. How do we do that? First week, though, man? First week is always choppy man.
Speaker 1:It's always choppy. I remember your first week. The biggest improvement you'll see on your football team is usually week one to week two.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right.
Speaker 1:That's pretty, that's pretty standard in football. You have a game under your belt and I can remember being back in when I was coaching. Back in my days we'd beat some teams in week one and think we were world beaters, and come out and lose like the next five games in a row because you know, it was just. They were just. They might not have been ready to play or they just had an off day. So week one's, all week one can be smoke and mirrors sometimes.
Speaker 1:You have to take it with a grain of salt, I think after two, three games, then you start to form an identity.
Speaker 2:But you can always tell, like, when teams are prepared, if they're not sloppy, if they're not hold, there's not a lot of penalties. I think these are all things. You can kind of get a gauge of where they're at. Um, and they, xavier, looked sharp. Uh, palm desert looked really sharp. Um, the third, the third team that I got to watch was, uh, yucca, and, and they look good too, man, yeah, they got it.
Speaker 1:Who did yucca play? Let's see here they played arrowhead, christian arrowhead christian, okay, and but um, it's a good got it. Who did Yucca play? Let's see here. They played Arrowhead Christian, arrowhead Christian, okay, but it's a good little tune-up for Yucca. I think next week they're going to have their real test. Yeah, yeah, well, they were playing.
Speaker 2:Defensively, they're running a 4-2-5, which is like, if I'm a defensive corner, that's my favorite defense. Uh, they even stood up their ends.
Speaker 2:They're in a two point which I like they're half yard off the ball, okay, um, and the reason why you do that is because you don't want them to run up the field too much, right? Because, um, a lot of kids will will just want to sack the quarterback, so you want to keep them in the. It's almost like a poor man's bracket. You get under the hitches and the slants, they're in a two-point okay. So when you're a quarterback, you drop back. You got two, two hopefully tall kids right there. Um, they can still set the edge, right, um?
Speaker 1:seems like a very like um perimeter oriented defense. It looks weird because they only got two. If you get a power, you get a power team.
Speaker 2:I know they're, I don't know if they're I don't know if they're going to be standing up this week. I guess I'll say man, lakinta, lakinta's coming with your counter, iso, they're going to do some kickouts. La Quinta, don't change man. It'll be interesting to see if they keep them in the two-point. I don't know if they keep that defense this week, just because you've got to play the power. You've got to play counter, you've got to try to load the box and we'll go up over top yeah.
Speaker 1:And Rancho Mirage found that out last year. Man, they couldn't stop the run, and that was the difference in the game. They just couldn't line up and stop the run.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then the year before they were able to stop the run and they won.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. La Quinta, they don't make where they're not going to beat you, you know. So it's not.
Speaker 2:You know what you're going to get.
Speaker 1:Exactly exactly. So, I think Yucca is going to be in for a little bit of adjustment for this week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, but they did look sharp Like they were. Their running back was good. You know talking about wide receiver screens earlier. I think they might be the best wide receiver screen in the area.
Speaker 1:They have.
Speaker 2:Coachella. It's up to them too.
Speaker 1:They both have a system that's the bread and butter man.
Speaker 2:So Yucca Valley can do it too, man. And when you get a system, you got that defender, the overhang or outside linebacker If he's on number two they'll run a certain screen, if he's on three they'll automatically switch to a different screen. They might be apex. It's just about the angles. And when you got a good system there and you can hit three or two or even the, the number one receiver coming on, it's hard to stop, and then once you hit that a couple times, you fake that and you go over time.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of it.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of adjustments that can be made out of that offense and so, trust me, I've seen I've had the displeasure of coaching against that for years so I feel you on that um so the other other games this week that we kind of are looking at, dca went up to 29 Palms, yeah, and they got a win. I mean, yeah, that's a big win. That's a pretty for DCA, who's not a big school. Yeah, that's a pretty impressive win, first win out of the gate, first win of the year 29 Palms.
Speaker 2:It's kind of a small football town too, kind of like Yucca. They got those military families. They always got kids that can play ball, so that's definitely a big win.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and for a small school I mean DCA's population is a tiny fraction of these other schools that they're playing. So I know some guys at DCA, the offensive coordinator, shout out to my man, Ernie. He's my guy. I used to coach him back in the day. He's an up-and-coming offensive coordinator. He was at Coachella for a long time. Coach Johnson, over there they're doing a real good job of bringing kids in that normally wouldn't even look at DCA and they've got a lot of freshmen starting.
Speaker 2:The head coach. He played the league. He's an NFL guy. Yeah, I heard he was an NFL guy. That's cool.
Speaker 1:We want to get him on the pod. So, Coach Johnson, if you're out there come on in and talk about your program, but a very impressive win. Going on the road. It's always hard to go on the road in high school Especially up there, Go up there.
Speaker 1:The air's a little thinner up there, but I mean so it wasn't really close and DCA is rolling with a lot of freshmen Some of them are holdback freshmen, but they're still freshmen technically and that's the team. I think that might be our. I'm kind of calling it right now, Even though they had a successful season last year. I think DCA might be our desert hot springs of last year. Who's kind of surprising people and beating people that you don't really expect them to be yeah, it's going to be the I'm calling that right now.
Speaker 1:I think they're going to be the story of the year in terms of the surprises. I think they have a chance. Looking at their schedule, they have a chance to do some things. So shout out to DCA. That's an impressive win. Looking at the other scores, we got Palm Springs, got a double overtime win, big win. Big win Against a team that they lost to last year at home. Very impressive, yeah, classic Palm Springs team.
Speaker 2:I mean the DEL is shaping up to be kind of crazy. I'm glad I'm not coaching this year. It's just so tough, man. You're taking the year off, man because these guys are coming man. These teams look much improved. They're primed up, ready to go. Boys are coming.
Speaker 1:Shout out to Palm Springs doing their thing. I think we'll get them on a couple of games of the week here. Coachella Valley went to Vista and won 33-21. So that's a pretty standard game for Coachella just outscoring people and doing their thing they had to come back a little bit in the second half. Yeah, I think they were down a little bit, but the second half they kind of started rolling, so getting that offense going, so shout out to.
Speaker 1:CV, the arabs are doing, the arabs are. Hey, the dvl is going to be uh pretty competitive too with cv and yucca and um, you know, the three-man, four-man that they're going to have this year. Um so cv excellent, excellent start. And then my personal favorite here is desert mirage 70, desert chapel, 38, 70 burger in the first week on a Desert Mirage. And you know Desert Mirage like I know Desert Mirage, they don't throw the ball a whole lot. So for you to have 70 points with that offense.
Speaker 1:How much running did they have to do? How many yards?
Speaker 2:did they have to do per carry? I want to see some tape. I want to see what they were running.
Speaker 1:I want to see.
Speaker 2:Obviously it's got to be some type of power, maybe double wing, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Send us some clips, send us some clips.
Speaker 2:I want to see this.
Speaker 1:So they're running back. Omar Martinez eight touchdowns, coach, in one game. We don't get better than that. Eight touchdowns in one game.
Speaker 2:Remember when Al Bundy was talking about his touchdowns on the couch? I mean, that's like some kid's careers is eight touchdowns in one game.
Speaker 1:So I mean I got to see the box. I haven't seen the box score for this game, but I would definitely like to see. I mean that's a heck of a start. Eight touchdowns in one game. I mean you might as well go retire after that. I don't know that it's going to get any better. Desert Chapel is obviously only in their third year of 11-man football.
Speaker 2:I'm glad they're playing 11 men.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they put up for almost 40 points.
Speaker 2:It wasn't like this was 70-0. They've got a good receiver, they've got a couple of good guys.
Speaker 1:I think they're kind of in the process of just building up the rest of the roster. You know football, you can't do it with two, three guys. You got to have a whole 25, 30 guys. So, Desert Chapel might be the Desert Christian story in a couple of years. I'm kind of predicting because they're going to. They've got some good coaches out there and they've got some good talent but they scored almost 40 points too, so it wasn't like it wasn't like it was 70, nothing, this 70-nothing.
Speaker 2:This is like they were going back and it looked like a track meet out there. Yeah, that was a lot of points.
Speaker 1:Yeah, track meet, and hey, that's a.
Speaker 2:That's a scoreboard with smoking 70 points for Desert Mirage.
Speaker 1:So that's a. That's got to be a school record of some sort. But we'll let the. We'll let the stat nerds kind of check that. Lastly, we had a Saturday game. Cathedral City opened their season at Santa Rosa Academy. They come out not on top. They lose 32-6 Cat City's. You know Cat City's probably going to be trying to get it going throughout the season and they're in that new Sun. Belt League or something like that, with banning and yeah, we got to do a little bit more research on the leagues.
Speaker 2:There's so many to kind of follow it's called like the Sun Belt, we'll do our homework next.
Speaker 1:And yeah, we got to do a little bit more research on the, on the leagues. There's so many to kind of follow. It's called like the Sunbelt We'll. We'll have our we'll do our homework next week for that for those leagues Stop changing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it changes every year. But Cat City goes on the road and they're going to. They're going to be on looking for their first week league game in a couple weeks here. So um thursday's games, we had obviously yucca valley. You already watched desert hot springs man. Desert hot springs beat rubidoux 32, 14.
Speaker 2:So good win desert.
Speaker 1:The golden eagles are back at it again.
Speaker 2:Huh yeah, the coaches proved it's not a fluke man. There was year three. They're showing that they've uh know how to win over there and they're going to continue it. They always have good, good kids out there and, um, I've coached out there yeah, you, you got some experience out there. I've coached there. I I'm, I love that school.
Speaker 1:I I think it's a they've always had talent out there. Yeah, it's just a matter of like keeping them all on the same page.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they got stuff at home, you know, and and there's stuff going around and and sometimes football isn't the most important thing in life and uh, it's hard to get them invested and and and finding that rhythm, that that a good team means, but I like it because it that's that's where I found the structure in life was football, so I'm I root for that school like right.
Speaker 1:So well, you got some personal experience out there and so I mean, I mean, that story continues, right. Yeah, shout out to that coaching staff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're doing a good job.
Speaker 1:And that team man. They're doing a real good job, starting the season off 1-0. Impressive win, you know, and they're just kind of continuing that momentum from last year.
Speaker 2:I saw them in passing league. They look good man, they're doing it right yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, hey, it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool to see a lot of the teams out here looking good and going out of town and beating some out-of-town teams. It's always a good feeling. Lastly, the kind of shocker well maybe not a shocker of the Thursday games is DEL favorite Rancho Mirage. Kind of comes in and gets beat in the first game by Christian of El Cajon 42-14. I don't know much about El Cajon. I'm assuming they're a pretty good team. Yeah, probably.
Speaker 2:To put that on record.
Speaker 1:Because Rancho's got a bunch of dudes that could play. I know they've kind of reloaded that roster and I think they're still going to be one of the favorites, but man, the DEL is going to be a bloodbath this year. I'm glad that I don't have to prepare for these teams every week, coach, because it's looking like there's five good teams in the DEL, man.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you, man, right now.
Speaker 1:Which game is a gimme in league at this point? I mean, there's none.
Speaker 2:All these teams look pretty sharp, Shadow Hills, Xavier, Palm Springs.
Speaker 1:La Quinta. I mean it's going to be tough.
Speaker 2:We haven't seen LaQuinta play yet, but I'm pretty sure LaQuinta is always going to be in the mix, just because they run the ball and play defense.
Speaker 1:Tradition says that LaQuinta will be in the mix somewhere.
Speaker 2:I know what they got under the hood too.
Speaker 1:so I'm not worried. I mean, tradition says that it'll be pretty competitive. So man DEL is shaping up to be quite a league race, man. I'm excited, man. It's going to be a big year, it's going to be some close games.
Speaker 2:Sometimes these games just come down, I mean to one yard. I mean you'll get down fourth and goal. Man, If you win, if you get it, you win, If you don't, you go home. And that's how close these games are. Man and the kids are fighting hard, Palm, You're fighting hard Right Palm Springs double overtime. There you go.
Speaker 1:So that's a one-play game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, who wants it more, that game? Comes?
Speaker 1:down to one play. So a lot of times that's what it comes down to. Guys out there. You know it's who wants it more you know talent doesn't always win games. Sometimes it's heart and it's determination.
Speaker 2:There's no gimme games, no easy games.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I think, an excellent start for week one for our desert teams. There's some really impressive performances from a lot of good players and coaches out there, I think, like I said, but what's really standing, I think the headline of this week is the DEL is going to be tough. We'll see how that goes further on as we get into it. Week one, like we said, can always be some game of smoke and mirrors as well as all you guys.
Speaker 1:All you guys that play the game. Sometimes week one there's fluky games as well, so we'll have a better idea of next week.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I think so far, so good.
Speaker 1:So far, so good. So, we're going to go ahead and preview next week's game right after a word from our sponsors. Thank you, all right. Welcome back everyone to Desert Valley Blitz, week 1. We're going to move on to previewing Week 2 now. We've got the schedule up. And so, coach Josh, what game, game, what matchup has you fascinated this week? We got a couple good ones coming up it's got to be Rancho Coachella Valley.
Speaker 2:I mean they had a a dogfight last year Coachella coming off a win, rancho Mirage coming off a loss. Um. Game of the week. Game of the week.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I 100% agree. I think that's the top of the DEL, top of the DVL, battling out. Yeah, both fun offenses to watch At Coachella this year. So it's going to be a little different playing out there. As you know, us old DVL guys had to go out there every year and play in those date gardens out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they don't have wood out there. No more do they, I think they might now, oh shoot.
Speaker 1:Well, it's been a while since I've been out there, but that's going to be an interesting game, I think. Rancho, coming off of maybe a loss, kind of looking to kind of get back on track CV's already kind of rolling with that offense. I'm expecting a high-scoring game.
Speaker 2:They're fun to watch. Both offenses are very fun. Coach Matthews has a fun offense to watch His attention to detail. I think it's the best in the Valley. Just what do I mean by that? Just like the way they run screens. The quarterback is. They do the same thing every time. He puts the ball back, you know, throw it, but if he's running the screen he'll show the ball. Puts the football by the ear like he's going to pass and then he starts to run for his life and as a D-lineman you think you got him.
Speaker 1:You start they suck you in and they hit you.
Speaker 2:So little things like that. You see Coach Matthews' paw prints all over the field, so I think once he gets everything dialed in perfectly, they're going to be hard to stop yeah and Coachella is always going to put some points on the board with that offense right, I mean Coach Johnson got that thing dialed in.
Speaker 1:And they're at home. It's a home opener. It's going to be a good game. I'm thinking we might need to make a trip out there and go check this one out. I think it might be worth the drive. So yeah, anybody out there, anybody at the schools that want us to cover this game, give us a give us a DM or email.
Speaker 2:We love it.
Speaker 1:We definitely would love to represent that game and and kind of give it a little bit more fireworks.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm predicting.
Speaker 1:I agree, game of the week hands down, but another interesting matchup. We've got Xavier prep at DHS this week, yeah, so that's going to be. That's going to be another interesting matchup Both are 1-0. Obviously, I think Xavier's probably going to be a little bit of a favorite on that game just because they play in a little bit higher league. But those are hot springs, man, you can't count them out, man, that's a scrappy, scrappy team you let them hang around.
Speaker 2:They're going to find a way to win.
Speaker 1:They got some guys I think, yeah, that should be another interesting game.
Speaker 2:I think, another high scoring affair. What do you think? Yeah, 100 like, uh, I'm, I'm, I guess I'm. You know, I coached at dhs, so I'm always rooting for them. But, xavier, like I mentioned earlier, man, they might be one of the best teams in the desert this year. So if you make me do it, I'll probably have to. You know, I think xavier's gonna pull it out, but yeah, they got to be the favorite.
Speaker 1:Just their top line talent is just pretty, pretty outstanding. Coach Doc's got them rolling pretty pretty good already. But who knows, you know, you never know. That's why this is interesting, right?
Speaker 2:That's why you get to play and like.
Speaker 1:I said sometimes your game, sometimes game. Don't travel on that bus, man. I'm glad they're playing each other too, man, yeah, man, give us a little bit something to kind of be excited about. So that should be an interesting one. Another pretty interesting one on the docket Palm Desert at El Centro.
Speaker 2:El Centro is good man. I mean I think you'd have to go back and look, but I'm pretty sure they beat Palm Desert last year.
Speaker 1:They beat them pretty handily last year.
Speaker 2:They're a good team man. Good coach, well coached. They got some athletes. Palm Desert's got their team man. Good coach, well coached. They got some athletes. Palm Desert's got their handful man.
Speaker 1:This is going to tell us exactly where Palm Desert's at for sure, yeah, but I think Palm Desert one thing that does travel is defense, yeah, and that defense is pretty stout. I mean, we know some guys I've coached some of those guys on that defense and they're studs, yeah, and they're all returning. So I think Palm Desert might be able to pull this one out. It's going to be tough, though that's a tough place.
Speaker 2:El Centro was tough when I was playing in the 90s. Going down there Was it two hours.
Speaker 1:It was always two hours.
Speaker 2:Two-hour bus ride.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was always a tough game, man. It's just El Centro. They got some ballplayers down there.
Speaker 2:The crowd gets behind them. It's tough to win. That's the school down there right in the imperial valley.
Speaker 1:That's one of the yeah if you're good at football, you're gonna go there. You're not gonna go um, what's the southwest?
Speaker 2:yeah, you're probably gonna go to central.
Speaker 1:So okay, so palm desert got their hands full, but I think that defense could be the difference maker at the end. You know, they just beat a good brawley team so I'm going for that desert team. Yeah, we're always pulling for the desert teams. Palm Springs at Grand Terrace. That'll be another tough game, Palm Springs is playing some tough teams man.
Speaker 1:That's another. Grand Terrace is a pretty big high school. I don't know I haven't really looked at what their rankings are but anytime you go into Riverside you're going to deal with some top-tier athletes somewhere on the field, Some guys yeah. Yeah, so I think Grand Terrace has been traditionally a pretty good program, so that's going to be another tough road game for Palm Springs. They probably got some of the tougher games in the DEL in the preseason.
Speaker 2:Yeah, their preseason is pretty tough. That's off to the coach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I think Palm Springs got enough juice to take that one. La Quinta, and here's your game La Quinta at Yucca Valley. Yeah, Shout out to. The Blackhawks actually opened up their season and we're going to see Back when I played we opened up against Yucca and the last few years Yucca was our scrimmage.
Speaker 2:We would scrimmage them and it was always. It was a fe, the scrimmage every year going if that was a real game, we would have won, if that was a real game, we would have won. They said that, we said that. So now we get to find out who would have won. So I'm looking forward to that game 100%. And I already saw Yucca Valley play there. They have a good staff, they have a good coaching staff and they get after it. So the Kings is going to have their hand full for sure.
Speaker 1:It's always tough to open against a team that's already played a game. And you haven't played a game. That's a big advantage. You can't really discount that They've already got a game under their belt. You still have to come out there and play your first one, Even if your talent is a little bit better. It's always an organizational thing.
Speaker 2:It's always like you know, get that game feeling, you don't really get game reps until you play a game.
Speaker 1:You can't simulate, and as much as us coaches want to do it, it's hard to simulate game reps in practice. You know, even scrimmage reps are not the same as a game rep, so it'll be interesting. Laquinta's got their hands full. I mean, my son is a Blackhawk, so I'll be rooting for the Blackhawks. I know that their Slim will not be playing. He's going to be, he's going to be.
Speaker 2:He's going to be out for at least the first half of the season, so other guys got to step up for the Kintos.
Speaker 1:The young bucks got to step up.
Speaker 2:I got some guys man yeah, they got. I seen them at practice they got some guys, I got some guys.
Speaker 1:I'll just leave it there. I don't want to. I mean one guy's one guy's tragedy is one I say it's time to make take advantage of that opportunity and and get your get your name in the paper. Shadow Hills off of that impressive Indio win is going to be at Palo Verde.
Speaker 2:Palo Verde's always good.
Speaker 1:They've got a good program. They won a CIF championship a couple of years ago I mean they used to be when I played not the, not the most powerful team, but now I think they're double wing.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure, though. Double wing.
Speaker 1:That's tough to prepare for I can't remember. From a defensive standpoint. They're running the ball, for sure, yeah man. I used to hate to prepare for that, just because.
Speaker 2:I watched them against Coachella a couple years ago.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I mean I think Shadow will probably be favored in that game, but you know it's early in the season, but we'll see. Be a tough, tough. It's always tough to go out to the river and try and play.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, they're, they're. They're desert team too, man, you're not gonna you don't have the heat advantage on them.
Speaker 1:So no, they're gonna be ready to play and then indio is on the road at fullerton. So hopefully a game that indio can kind of get some, get some momentum going and get some confidence going um. Fullerton, I believe, is not a powerhouse program, so I think, uh, we got some Indio's, got some opportunity to kind of just to get some preseason momentum to get that taste of that last game out of your mouth and just move on.
Speaker 1:You know that's the best thing for everybody involved. So next one we got San Bernardino at Cat City. So Cat City, get their home opener against San Bernardino. You know it's always good to play at home. Coach Lee's I'm sure going to have them ready to go. It's always nice to kind of get your home opener and get a win under your belt. I think Cat City has the opportunity to do that this week. The next one is San Jacinto Valley Academy at Desert Mirage. Desert Mirage man.
Speaker 2:If they do half of what, they did in that first game, man, they're going to light up that scoreboard out of Desert Mirage. Man, Just do what you did last week. Just keep it going.
Speaker 1:I'm rooting for Desert Mirage man, they don't get a lot of shine, but those kids play hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they do.
Speaker 1:And they run the heck out of that football man. So, hey, as a defensive guy, I can appreciate that. I think Desert Mirage might start the about who they're playing, but just off of momentum. And then, lastly, we got Desert Christian Academy at Riverside Prep. Hey, DCA, man don't sleep on DCA, I think.
Speaker 1:DCA is going to be going on a roll here. We're going to see some big numbers out of that offense. They've got a lot of young talent out there. They've got a good coaching staff. Dca people watch out man. In two, three years, man DCA might be the team that everybody's talking about. Uh, I think they're doing it the right way. You know they got it. They got a really good youth program over there that I know some people that over there. So I mean it's, I think it's just going to continue.
Speaker 1:So shout out to DCA I think they're going to be two and O as well, and uh, yeah that's it for week I think DCA is going to do some big things this year, so I'm rooting for them. I know a lot of guys over there, but yeah, that's what we're looking forward for week two. Man, I think we're going to have some more answers by the time we come back in here next week. We're going to have a little bit more answers, a little bit more identity for these teams.
Speaker 2:Who's the best? Who needs to get better? Some standout players get better.
Speaker 1:Some standout players, some, and the biggest improvement, always week one to week two. Yeah, you know, in any, in any football, any, any football level, uh, youth high school, college, nfl like you said, it's no way to simulate a game situation.
Speaker 2:It just you can't do it and we've tried I mean we've racked our brains for years to try and simulate that.
Speaker 1:There's just no way to. To put the band in the stands. Yeah, to put, to put the cheerleaders out there and just get the adrenaline. There's just no way to simulate that. So you know, these games are really going to be where you find out.
Speaker 2:I can't wait. Yeah, so it's week two coming up.
Speaker 1:Folks, we're real excited and, like I said, all you coaches and players, this program is for you guys. So if you guys want to come in and and, and you know, highlight yourself or highlight your team, we're here for you. Send us a DM, email us at info at desert valley blitzcom. It's also in the link and, yeah, we're looking forward to it and week two's coming up.
Speaker 2:So yeah, if you got any questions, hit us up. Anything we might have talked about that you're not real sure about, hit us up, we'll try to help. I know we had some people ask me. Let us know what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I don't even realize if you understand what a 425 is or a 440.
Speaker 2:We get a little bit more in depth than the layman's terms.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let us know, we'll describe some stuff, yeah that's what the show's for, though, so all right people. So if you like this uh episode and found some value in today, you know the routine like subscribe and follow, and we'll see you guys next time on desert valley blitz.