With a 39-14 win over Nordhoff in Week Zero, West Ranch is now ranked No. 9 in the CIF-Southern Section Division 6 standings and will host John Burroughs High School at Valencia High School at 7 p.m. tonight.
“They’re a pretty solid team and we didn’t get to play them last year because of the fires,” said West Ranch head coach Chris Varner. “They have a new head coach, are solid and both sides of the ball and have some solid athletes so I expect it to be a good game.
“Most of these kids have been waiting for this game.”
Putting up impressive numbers, West Ranch quarterback Weston Eget delivered by providing all in attendance with a show. In his season debut, Eget went 13-of-18 passing for 290 yards and two touchdowns.
“The naysayers are always going to do what they do and not believe until we do it in Foothill League. They’re going to be doubters and he knows that his performance was not the most capable,” Varner said. “But the thing about (Eget) is he’s never content with his performance he always wants to improve and learn, it really shows how different he is compared to most players.”
One-half of the Camacho duo, Jovan Camacho, caught eight of Eget’s passes along with the two touchdown passes for 203 yards. Matt Stripling and Nicholas Kohl had two receptions each.
Jovan is currently ranked fourth in California in terms of receiving yards.
“It wasn’t like he was wide open last week,” Varner said. “He just ran off some of their guys. They just had a tough time bringing him down and keeping up with him. That’s what you expect out of either Camachos.”
Ryan Camacho and Rieger Burgin shared most of the carries for the Wildcats with Ryan rushing 11 times for 74 yards and Burgin carrying the ball 10 times for 44 yards. Ryan finished with two touchdowns and a long run of 54 yards.
Senior Nicolas Lindgren chipped in, rushing five times for 22 yards.
Linebackers Zachary Van Bennekum and Bryce Buchanan led the way defensively for West Ranch, recording seven tackles (six solo) and six tackles (three solo).
Van Bennekum recorded one of the two Wildcat sacks on the day. Eugene Kim recorded the other sack.
“If they focus in on them, we have other guys that we can use besides those two to try and disrupt their offense,” Varner said.
Now with a game under their belts, the Wildcats have been focused on cleaning up the little things in preparation for tonight’s game against Burroughs.
“(Friday’s) game we made a lot of penalties so we have been working on that. Just cleaning up the mental mistakes, but it should be exciting and hopefully we come out on top again.”
