The562’s coverage of football in 2023-24 is sponsored in part by the MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center Foundation and Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital Foundation.
The562’s coverage of Cabrillo Athletics is sponsored by the Cohn Family.
The 710 Rivalry came to Cabrillo on Friday night where the Jaguars hosted Jordan on Senior Night, but the Panthers poured on points early and often they went on to win it comfortably 47-7.
Jordan won the coin toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff, where they immediately got to work as quarterback JJ Nielsen spread the ball around with completions to Deonte Tucker and Gerald Pickens. Nielsen found Tucker streaking up the middle of the field for a 17-yard grab in the endzone to jump out to a quick 7-0 lead.
Running back Jordan Washington stole the show from there as the Panthers put together a solid drive full of Washington carries, and he capped it off by a score from 16-yards out. On the next drive, Washington hauled in a short pass from underneath, zig-zagging between tackles taking it 69-yards down the field deep into Jaguars territory, where Donovan Randolph finished off the drive with a 10-yard reception from Nielson to put the Panthers up 20-0.
The Jaguars tightened up however, turning it into a chippy game on the next few Panther drives as Cabrillo came up with a handful turnovers resulting in heated exchanges between players. Cabrillo’s Hakeen Aurbey stole an interception on a miscued throw before Jaiden Lam Sam picked up a fumble on the Panthers’ next drive to set the Jaguars up with good field positioning.
Cabrillo was able to capitalize as quarterback Fernando Leanos and running back Antonio Elam scampered around the defense to pick up a few first downs, setting up a pass from Leanos to Keyon Smith for a 12-yard touchdown reception to make it 20-7.
“That’s what we preach, play 48 minutes one play at a time,” said Cabrillo coach Shane Gonzales of his team fighting back in the game.“They played hard on our senior night. They came out there and wanted to play well for their last home game. I’m proud of them.”
The Jaguar defense continued to play chippy on their next drive, as Jordan looked to score with a 59-yard catch and run from Jake Bautista before Joe Gogue miraculously stripped the ball at the one yard line giving Cabrillo yet another turnover on back-to-back-to-back defensive drives. Fights broke out again as Cabrillo celebrated the turnover before refs came in, eventually ejecting a player from either team.
Unfortunately for the Jaguars, Jordan stiffened up for the rest of the game on both sides of the ball after giving up a few turnovers. Washington got loose again on the Panthers’ next drive taking in another pass from underneath down the field for a 53-yard reception and his second score of the night. The Panthers went into halftime with a comfortable 27-7 lead.
Washington was in the midst of two of Jordan’s early turnovers before having a big night. He spoke after the game about taking accountability and making adjustments.
“We tried to get going on a couple screen passes at the beginning of the game but they were ready for it,” Washington said. “They hit me good a couple times and got me to fumble. I just gotta clean that up, everybody makes mistakes. But we have so many plays to run and we had to figure out what was their weakness and it was the middle. So, we pounded up the middle and it worked.”
Washington found the end zone one more time on a 10-yard rush to open the second half, finishing the night with three catches for 131-yards and a score, as well as 53 yards on the ground and two more rushing touchdowns.
Nielsen would go on to throw one more touchdown in the second half to Kani Swisher, while rushing for another score. He finished the day with an astounding 479 yards on 21/32 passing, as well as five total touchdowns and an interception.
“It’s standard operating procedure, SOP,” said coach Jon Nielsen on his son’s performance. “It’s just what we do. Our plan is to come out of next week healthy and look ahead to the new season after that.”
Jordan is still in the mix to make the playoffs, as they host Poly next week while Cabrillo will be away at Millikan.
