Cleveland football blasts North Hollywood in City Section Division II quarterfinal
WOODLAND HILLS — Neither a rainstorm nor a stacked North Hollywood football team could stop the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday.
The Cavaliers blasted the Huskies, 42-0, in the CIF LA City Section Division II quarterfinals at Taft High School.
Despite the rainy conditions, Cleveland (4-8) moved the ball through the air and on the ground masterfully while the Cavaliers defense earned its first shutout of the season.
Cleveland was led by junior quarterback Domenik Fuentes, who totaled five touchdowns and just over 100 total yards on offense. The quarterback, who also starts at linebacker, went down with an injury on the team’s 10th play of the season. Friday marked his first full game back since the injury and featured his first passing touchdowns of the season, two of which, went to his brother Jesus.
“(Domenik’s the heart and soul of our team,” Cleveland coach Mario Guzman said. “There’s no secret about it. I think he’s the only quarterback going both ways in the city. He’s just a ballplayer. He’s been doing this since he was 5 years old. Having him back changed everything and really flipped our season around.”
The Cavaliers rode a hot 19-point second quarter, when the team found the end zone on offense and defense.
The Fuentes brother connection was flexed throughout the night as Domenik, hit his receiver and older sibling Jesus, for a pair of touchdowns. The brothers connected for both touchdowns in the second quarter, including a 19-yard touchdown reception that capped off an impressive 2-minute drill to go up 26-0 at halftime.
Jesus finished the night with five catches for 73 yards.
Cleveland’s defense did damage in the trenches and jammed up the North Hollywood Wing-T offense. Turnovers killed the Huskies (8-3) throughout the night as multiple fumbles and an interception by Cleveland defensive back Michael Reyna, made the difference.
“These kids are film addicts,” Guzman said. “I look on Hudl and they’re watching hours and hours. Some of them are catching up to me, but that’s what we want. There’s some stuff we saw in film that we’re able to exploit, as far as alignments go, things like that. But the kids, we gave them the blueprint, and they executed it to perfection.”
The Cavaliers also took advantage of one two Husky fumbles in the quarter as Robert Granillo scooped and scored an unforced North Hollywood fumble. The ball slipped away from the Huskies several times while Cleveland had just one fumble and was prepared for the rainy conditions.
“I took a little pride in this: I turned sprinklers on the entire practice,” Guzman said. “We had a bucket of water and every other play we had a wet ball go in there. It frustrated the hell out of our dudes, but we told them, they’d be ready for tonight.”
Domenik also connected with Julio Avalos for a touchdown. Avalos served as the team’s quarterback for most of the year, despite being the third-string signal caller, but Guzman feels he did a great job to get the Cavaliers to this point.
Running back Brandon Maldonado rushed for 90 yards in the win, but Guzman is hopeful to get 1,000-yard back Moyosoreoluwa Odebunmi back next week for the semifinals.
Cleveland now returns to the City semis for the first time in three years and will play the Fairfax Lions, another 4-8 team. Guzman was on the coaching staff the last time Cleveland made the semifinals and will prepare another tough week of practice for the top-seeded Cavaliers
“From that experience, I just know practice, we got to take it up another notch,” Guzman said. “There’s no settling, there’s no getting complacent. We gotta take it up another notch, increase the intensity, get our guys going and be ready to ultimately play Thanksgiving weekend.”