On August 23rd, the Grand Terrace High School Football Program celebrated their annual Veteran’s Night at their season opener game and honored the past, current, and future brave individuals that so courageously have dedicated their lives to serve our country.
Men and women of all branches were in attendance and were recognized as their name, branch of service, and rank was announced when they walked down a corridor of football players, coaches, cheer squad, and staff who were cheering and thanking the veterans as they walked through. Friends and families cheered loudly from the stands to show support and tribute to these American heroes.
A message was delivered from U.S. Navy veteran Junior Castañon, “Thank you Grand Terrace High School Football and Boosters Club for recognizing veterans with such a great ceremony. It’s an honor to see the support and acknowledgment coming from our youth." Junior has attended the annual Veteran’s Night since 2014.
The momentum was felt all around and everyone was filled with excitement for the game to begin as Grand Terrace looks to get back to their league champs form of 2 years ago. Head Coach Ryan Smalls said, “My prediction tonight, is we will be a better team after tonight.”
John W. North Huskies put the first points up on the scoreboard with a 32-yard field goal after their second drive. With 5 minutes to play in the first quarter, Lonzel Bradford #13 returned it for Grand Terrace Titans for 44-yards bounced it outside around a gang of Huskies to get to the 46-yard line. On the 47- yard line of the Huskies, Titan Troy Steptoe #1 burst up the middle and broke off a rundown of 46-yards finally downed on the 7-yard line of the Huskies goal line. Titans were stopped by the strong Huskies defense on the 3-yard line going for a field goal kicked slightly to the right, but it was not good.
Gavin Huxhold #6 kicked another ball into the endzone for the second straight touchback in the first half. J.W. North Huskies drove down the field on a mission to score before halftime as their Quarterback Coryon Rayford #5 ran around for his life throwing up a prayer to the end-zone to Kavon Baptiste #1 who caught it over the cornerback for the buzzer beating touchdown taking the game into the half with a score of 14-10 with Grand Terrace Titans on top.
Huskies started the 4th quarter with the game at their favor with the score being 17-14. J.W. North are playing smashmouth football getting 3 straight first downs off run plays. J.W. North is winning the game at the line of scrimmage and with the ball on the 25-yard line they got 2 first downs off penalties. On 3rd and long GT sent the blitz sacking the Huskie’s QB making it 4th and 15 making J.W. North kick a field goal but GT’s defense sent too much pressure making the 35-yard field goal miss!
Late in the 4th quarter GT had the ball on the 10- yard line with what seems like 3rd and forever away from the first down after a bad snap led to Jaden running and falling on the ball to keep the game alive. GT ran the ball on 3rd down to play it safe and punted the ball hoping to stop the Huskies on their drive.
The J.W. North Huskies strong run game continued to dominate with Venasio Mikaele #30 eating up yards each carry. Starting on their own 38-yard line with 3 minutes left ran a dive play and Venasio Mikaele #30 found an open hole and broke off for a 20-yard run. Venasio Mikaele #30 ran it for 5 yards and ran it out of bounds with David Gusta #60 pushing him down at the sidelines making the refs throw a flag for an unnecessary roughness of a late hit.
After a false start 3rd and 10 scrambles by Coryon Rayford #5 diving for the first down but ending up short making it 4th and inches with 2:18 on the clock on the 13-yard line. Coryon Rayford #5 ran a QB sneak to get the first down and ran the clock out with QB kneels with 1:20 left ending the game with the win 17-14.
Grand Terrace (0-1) goes on the road August 30th to Yucaipa and ready to bounce back from the loss with a win at Yucaipa High School.