Porterville ends Monache's reign of dominance

This was a night a decade in the making for the Panthers.

When Jacob Rankin Stadium’s clock hit zero, Monache’s Granite Bowl stranglehold ended and a green- and orange-clad mob enveloped the field, providing an exclamation point for a shocking night.

Porterville (6-4, 4-2 EYL) scored four second-half touchdowns to bury its stunned rival 50-26 and will force the Perpetual Trophy to change addresses for the first time in nine years. 

“I’ve never felt anything like this in my life,” Jordan McIntire said.

The senior running back succinctly summarized the sentiments of an entire fan base and Porterville coach Rick Stewart said this win does belongs solely to his players and fans that support them.

“(It’s) not so much amazing for me, but amazing for the players and the community,” Stewart said. “I haven’t been part of all the losing, but the players have never had a winning record in their lives and never beat Monache in their lives. This one’s for the players.”

Quarterback Richie Coppenbarger was nervous before his career’s biggest game, but his performance didn’t show it, as the junior rushed for three touchdowns and passed for another.

“We threw a lot of stuff at Monache that they hadn’t seen before, so Richie was real nervous,” Stewart said. “It was stuff we hadn’t run. We were letting him audible and I had to take away the audibles from him. He said his mind was going a million miles an hour. Once Richie settled down, we just let Richie do what Richie does best and then we started rolling.”

Following a one-yard Joey Perry score, Coppenbarger pitched to McIntire and watched the running back sprint 62 yards to convert an early third down. On the Panthers’ next third down, Coppenbarger plunged in from one yard out to tie the game at seven. 

But the Marauders  (5-5, 3-3 EYL) matched their usual whipping boys in the first half when junior quarterback Pablo Martinez found a leaping Martin Moreno on a fourth-and-eight for a 19-yard score. McIntire answered on the next series with a 16-yard score on a counter play.

Coppenbarger connected on two straight completions to set up the touchdown, but his aerial attempts were few and far between as the Panthers did not make any secret of how they wanted to win this game.

“What’d we throw, two passes? If you can run the ball, you’re gonna win,” Stewart said.

Porterville took a 22-14 lead into the locker room, but its defense made sure that was as close as Monache would get.

Junior Kevin Hulse played like a Central-Valley version of Shawne Merriman, Friday night, sacking Martinez three times and grabbing an interception.

“You can’t describe it with words,” Hulse said after the win. “It’s unbelievable. The best feeling I’ve ever had.”

Hulse’s INT was one of the five turnovers the Panthers’ defense forced. 

In the third quarter, the unit turned the competitive battle into a blowout by scoring 14 straight points off turnovers. Safety Josh Callanan picked up a Martinez fumble, which fullback David Ali turned into six points a few plays later and Daniel Rueger broke the Marauders’ back later in the quarter with a 35-yard interception return to put the Panthers up by 23.

Rueger’s interception came after Monache scored another touchdown on a fourth-and-long. Martinez connected with Sebastian Alcantar, who broke free of a tackle and dashed down the sideline for a 31-yard touchdown.

Monache coach Chris Likewise said Rueger’s interception squashed any momentum Alcantar’s miraculous score created.

“The thing that really hurt was obviously the pick-six we threw,” Likewise said. “We obviously shot ourselves in the foot. You can’t turn it over five times and win. We didn’t take care of the football and they took advantage of it.”

Despite getting five wins this season, Monache will not elect to enter postseason play.

Knocking their city rivals out of the playoffs by a 24-point margin is something that the Panthers fully expected, even after a nine-year drought, according to McIntire.

“(Coach Stewart) said, ‘We don’t want to beat them by one, we don’t want to beat them by two, we want to beat them by a lot, so they have no excuses. And we beat them, fair and square,” McIntire said.

At the other end of the spectrum, Monache now has an entire offseason to swallow one of its more bitter defeats.

“It’s super tough,” Likewise said. “I feel bad especially for our seniors who’ve dedicated so much to our program. I know it’s real hard for them to take the fact that it was their class (that lost) after nine straight years.” 

The Panthers will advance to the Division III Valley playoffs and anticipate drawing a home game.

“We’ll get a home playoff game,” Stewart said. “Division III’s wide open. We have a really good shot at winning a couple and there’s never been a playoff win in Porterville High School history (since the Central Valley Section was formed in 1964).”