Godinez bounces back with solid effort in non-league victory over Katella

Godinez Coach Aron Kaye talks to his players after Friday’s win. (PHOTOS: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).

Godinez High School’s football team got back into the win column Friday night after a rough outing last week.

The Grizzlies jumped out to a 14-0 lead after three quarters and went on to defeat Katella 14-7 at Santa Ana Valley in the final non-league game of the season for both teams.

“First of all, all props to Katella, were they tough, they played hard and he’s (Katella coach) got them going in the right direction, but we played 48 minutes finally and that was good and we did the things in the fourth quarter we needed to do, the long punt, the fourth down play, we picked up a couple first downs before that and our defense played lights out,” said Godinez Coach Aron Kaye.

“Our defensive coordinator Luis Ahumada and our defensive staff came up with a phenomenal game plan and we played lights out and that really made a difference.”

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Godinez (3-3) lost to Rancho Alamitos 37-3 last week and Kaye was looking for a better outcome this week.

The Grizzlies stepped it up with a solid effort Friday night. Junior quarterback Damien Arreola scored Godinez first TD on a 4-yard run in the first quarter. He was steady leading the offense, passing for 28 yards and rushing for 16.

Junior running back Henry Vega put Godinez ahead 14-0 with a 12-yard TD run in the third quarter. He was the game’s leading rusher with 76 yards on 15 carries.

“It was a hard victory but we got there because all the hard work we put in practice paid off in the game and all our team did their best and the outcome was what we wanted,” Vega said. “We locked in practice because we were slacking last week. This week, we knew what we wanted and we pushed through.”

The TD run turned out to be the difference.

“It was on my O-line there,” Vega said. “They gave me the gap and took it advantage of it and I got the touchdown.”

Katella (1-4) battled until the end, cutting the lead to 14-7 when quarterback Isaac Sanchez connected with Braydon Lopez on a 24-yard TD pass with 5:10 remaining.

The Knights tried to get the ball back for a possible tying TD but Godinez was able to run out the clock when Arreola picked up a first down near mid-field on a fourth and one.

“Things didn’t go our way,” said Katella Coach Dustin Hurley. “We’re still building, we have a lot of things to work on and a lot of things to clean up. We were fighting back. That’s the difference between this year’s team and last year’s team, we got fight.

“We have to come back and have a better week of practice and play a little more disciplined football. The penalties really hurt us today.”

Sanchez, the quarterback, rushed for 66 yards and passed for 81.

“He’s a magical player and he does a lot of great things with his feet, he’s a guy we rely on,” the coach said.

Pedro Martinez had an interception for Godinez and Jayden Hernandez picked off a pass for Katella. Katella also had a fumble recovery.

“We played hard and we needed to win a game like this,” said Kaye, the Godinez coach. “I can’t tell you the last time that Godinez football won a close game. This was really cool because we had to win one of these because league is coming up. I’m really happy for our kids.”

—-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com