Heritage High School Athletes of the Week: Sept. 16

From left: Danny Ibarra, Kristen Briseno, Isaiah Morrow, Simoriah Scharer, Diamond Brogan.

Each week of the school year, Menifee 24/7 honors top student-athletes at Heritage High School. The coach of each varsity sport is allowed to select one athlete based on the previous week's performances or on potential shown by the athlete. Here are this week's Heritage High School Athletes of the Week:

The boys cross country team is represented by Danny Ibarra, who took fifth place overall in the sophomore race at the Colton Swarm Invitational. Kristen Briseno of the girls cross country team took fifth place overall in the senior race at the Colton Swarm Invitational.

Running back Isaiah Morrow represents the football team this week. In last Friday's 65-12 victory over Coachella Valley, Morrow rushed for 156 yards and two touchdowns and caught a touchdown pass.

Simoriah Scharer was chosen to represent the girls tennis team

"Simi is a multi-sport athlete, hard worker, and is always helping others during practice," said her coach, Monty McIntosh.

Diamond Brogan was chosen as a representative of the girls volleyball team

These athletes will be eligible for selection as Heritage High School's Athletes of the Month, which will be announced the first week of October.

Heritage, Now 4-1, Makes it Look Easy in 49-28 Win Over Rialto

Limihai Hifo heads toward the end zone on a 15-yard touchdown run for Heritage Friday night.

Heritage High School's football team cruised toward its bye week before Sunbelt League play opens Oct. 11 with a 49-28 victory at Rialto High Friday night.

Limihai Hifo, Sione Takitaki (left) and Jalen Glover each ran for two touchdowns for the Patriots, who will take a 4-1 overall record into league play following a well-deserved week off next week.

"We still have some things to shore up," said Patriots coach Kraig Broach, "but we took a big step today. Defensively, we improved. Rialto has a lot of skill players, but we handled ourselves well. And on offense, it was neat to see guys like Isaiah Morrow and Jalen Glover get some more playing time. And of course you can always talk about Limihai."

Glover (129 yards rushing) and Morrow (116) had impressive outings with more than their usual amount of carries, and Takitaki was solid as usual. But it was hard not to talk about No. 10.

Hifo rushed for 131 yards and two touchdowns, one covering 60 yards in the second quarter. His first score, from 15 yards out, combined with Kyle Hernandez's PAT kick, gave Heritage a 7-6 lead in the first quarter, wiping out a 6-0 Rialto lead.

Hifo (right) virtually did it all Friday night. Switching to a new position of free safety on defense, he had a strong showing on that side of the ball as well. He came up with a couple of booming punts on special teams. And he even took a few snaps at quarterback when starting QB Brett Virgil left the game briefly with a twisted ankle.

"I just do whatever the coach says," said Hifo.

The 5-foot-11, 225-pound senior said he and his teammates thought it might be a closer game. Rialto came into the contest with a 2-1 record, defeating Summit High of Fontana last week.

"After watching the film, we thought maybe their quarterback (Javone Morgan) would make our defensive line tired," Hifo said. "But we learn from our mistakes quick. We still have to clean up things like penalties, but we played pretty well against a good Great Oak team (in a 43-40 loss) last week and we played well tonight."

Penalties denied Heritage some field position but didn't really cost the Patriots much on the scoreboard. They even survived the loss of starting defensive lineman Niko Cornejo-Gomez, who left the game late in the second quarter (left) with what appeared to be a broken leg.

Then there was the defensive play of Limihai's younger brother, Aleva Hifo. He recovered a Rialto fumble and made a big run to set up Limihai Hifo's 60-yard TD run inthe second quarter. Then when a Rialto player inadvertently touched a bouncing Heritage kickoff in the third quarter, Aleva recovered the ball, setting up a 9-yard TD run by Glover moments later.

And at the start of the fourth quarter, Aleva Hifo leaped in front of intended receiver Bryan Williams of Rialto for an interception in the end zone.

Another star of the Heritage defense was linebacker Caleb Marquez. The Menifee 24/7 Athlete of the Week made several key tackles in the first half.

"The bye week is coming at a good time, because we have a couple guys banged up," said Broach, who saw not only Cornejo-Gomez leave and Virgil sidelined briefly, but linebacker McKinley Grant limp off as well.

After taking next Friday off, the Patriots will open Sunbelt League play Oct. 11 against Perris -- Heritage's first home game since the first week of the season.

Aleva Hifo scoops up a Rialto fumble and gains big yardage, setting up a Patriots TD in the second quarter.  Jalen Glover races for a 23-yard gain in the fourth quarter of Friday night's win. Heritage quarterbak Brett Virgil was sidelined briefly with a twisted ankle but returned to action.