The Castaic Coyotes (0-2) dropped their second-ever varsity football game, and first on the road, at Royal (2-0) on Friday, 41-20.
“We played hard. We just got beat by a better team,” Castaic head coach Tony Uebelhardt told The Signal in a phone interview.
Castaic got all three touchdowns from junior running back Jacob Pimentel. Two of those came on the ground, and one through the air.
The Coyotes did well to keep the score close, trailing at the half, 21-7. But with this being just the second game they’ve ever played at the varsity level, and Uebelhardt still waiting for some of his players to come back from injury or to be deemed eligible to play, he thinks it’s just a matter of time until things start to click.
“We actually had a lot of kids step up and play in starting positions who are normally backups,” Uebelhardt said. “But our kids play hard. We played tough the whole football game.”
One of those backups was Pimentel, who stepped into the starting running back spot and made his presence known.
“He came to us last year, and he’s always been in the mix, kind of like a running back in our system that we run,” Uebelhardt said. “But he really stepped up tonight and he showed some good things that he can do. And that just gives us a lot more depth when we get our other running backs out there.”
Uebelhardt also mentioned Gage Gibson as a standout on the offensive side of things, while Brandon Marshall at free safety and Ashton Moreno at outside linebacker put in good shifts on defense.
Castaic will host Burbank next week.
