Cota, Prewitt Named Paloma Valley Athletes of the Month

From left: DeMarco Prewitt, Larry Nemelka of RE/MAX Diamond Realty, Principal Don Williamson, Ashlynn Cota.

Basketball season is over at Paloma Valley High School, but accomplishments of two standout players have not been forgotten.

Senior Ashlynn Cota and sophomore DeMarco Prewitt have been selected as Paloma Valley's Menifee 24/7 Athletes of the Month, sponsored by RE/MAX Diamond Realty.

Cota is a third-year varsity player who led the girls basketball team in scoring at 14.3 points per game. She helped lead the Wildcats into the CIF playoffs.

"Ashlynn's offensive abilities have helped her to excel as a player," said her coach, Romeo Galbreath.

Cota is considering offers from Cal State East Bay, Cal State Monterey Bay and Whittier College. She hopes to study kinesiology in preparation for a career as a chiropractor or physical therapist.

"I'm going to go to the gym and work out, hopefully get into a college program where I can work out with other recruit," she said. "I want to work on my defense. It's been important ever since I was little, but I'm more of an offensive threat, so I know I need to work on my defense and my speed."

Prewitt is a three-sport athlete who also completes in football and track, but most recently his talents were utilized by the boys basketball team. Coming back from an early-season injury, he led the team in scoring and served as a captain of the team.

"DeMarco is a strong student and athlete," said his coach, Michael Pfeiffer. "He is a high character young man."

Prewitt made first-team all-league as a freshman and came back with a strong sophomore season.

"We're a young team; we only had two seniors on the team," Prewitt said about the Wildcats, whose season ended short of the CIF playoffs. "At the end of the season we won three in a row. Our morale was good."

Cota and Prewitt received certificates from Menifee 24/7 and were presented Target gift cards from Larry Nemelka of RE/MAX Diamond Realty.






She is considering offers from Cal State East Bay, Cal State Monterey Bay and Whittier College. She hopes to study kinesiology in preparation for a career as a chiropractor or physical therapist.

"You talk about having two shining examples of our student body right here," said Paloma Valley Principal Don Williamson. "This is awesome."

Paloma Valley Athletes of the Week: Armijo, Prewitt, Hancock

From left: Jackie Armijo, DeMarco Prewitt, Alize Hancock.

Three student-athletes who have excelled for their teams in early January have been selected by their coaches as Menifee 24/7 Athletes of the Week for Paloma High School.

Senior Jackie Armijo is a four-year varsity player and captain of the Wildcats girls soccer team. Her solid play from the center back position on defense was a key to Paloma Valley's 1-0 victory over Hemet in the team's final nonleague game Jan. 9. Behind her leadership, the team is 9-2-2 heading into Wednesday's Sunbelt League opener at Elsinore, last year's league champion.

"The Hemet game was tough," Armijo said. "They had a couple really good forwards, so our defense really had to work together and communicate with each other.

"We didn't lose any seniors from last year, so we have a lot of chemistry on the team."

She hopes to earn a scholarship to continue her soccer career in college.

Sophomore guard DeMarco Prewitt is one of the leading scorers on the boys basketball team, which lost its league opener to Elsinore on Saturday in the Sunbelt League Showcase, hosted by the Wildcats. Although the team has struggled, Prewitt has displayed the type of leadership he showed as a running back on the football team last fall.

"We've just got to get through it," Prewitt said. "We have to come together as a team and get things done. We get along real well. I think our chances in league are very good. It just comes down to how much we want it, because we can beat any team in the league. We just have to work at it."

Junior guard and team captain Alize Hancock scored 19 points last Saturday to lead the girls basketball team to a 56-35 victory over Elsinore in the Wildcats' Sunbelt League opener. She is averaging 14.8 points per game for Paloma, which is 10-7 overall.

Hancock missed five games with a concussion after taking an elbow to the face early in the season, but she has rebounded to once again be a strong leader for her teammates.

"Our goal is to make it to at least third round of CIF," Hancock said. "Last year we only made it to the first round. We're working together better as a team this year."

Paloma Valley Comes Up Short Against Canyon Springs

Photos and text by Patricia Sanchez

Paloma Valley forward Chris Owens, who scored 15 points, completes a layup against Canyon Springs.

Demarco Prewitt led his team with 16 points and Chris Owens added 15 Saturday afternoon, but it wasn't enough for the Paloma Valley High School basketball team in a 69-57 loss to Canyon Springs in the Paloma Valley Winter Shootout

Christian Cruz of Canyon Springs led all scorers with 23 points. Tournament play continues Monday at 1:30 p.m.

Wildcats guard Demarco Prewitt drives around a defender in Saturday's game.

Coach Michael Pfeiffer instructs his players during a timeout.

Late Defensive Plays Help Paloma Valley Remain Unbeaten

Demarco Prewitt finds running room for a long gain late in the fourth quarter of Paloma Valley's 35-29 win over Elsinore Friday night.

In a perfect world, the Paloma Valley High School football players would eliminate their penalties and not have to sweat out frantic fourth-quarter drives by the opposition.

But the Wildcats' record is indeed still perfect Friday night after a hard-fought victory, and that was coach Bert Esposito's primary concern.

"We keep finding ways to win," Esposito said after Paloma Valley's 35-29 victory over visiting Elsinore in the Sunbelt League opener for both teams. "I don't care if it's 2-0 or 50-49; it's a win, and the guys did what they had to."

Senior quarterback Brent Boehm passed for 292 yards and three touchdowns, including two to Michael Valencia (right) in the first quarter. Sophomore running back Demarco Prewitt rushed for 97 yards and two touchdowns, plus a third TD on a pass reception from Boehm. Yet it was the defense that had to come up biggest when the game was on the line.

The Wildcats (1-0, 6-0) didn't score again after Prewitt's 1-yard touchdown run gave them a 35-17 lead early in the third quarter. Elsinore (0-1, 2-4) fought back with a 4-yard TD run by Davis Peralta and a 20-yard TD pass from quarterback Tommy Wilson to Chris Harris before the quarter was over, cutting Paloma's lead to 35-29 entering the final period.

That's when the Paloma Valley defense came up big. Showing that they had the ability to shake off earlier mistakes and costly penalties, the Wildcat defenders forced two turnovers and stopped Elsinore's final desperation drive in the final minutes to preserve the victory.

Early in the quarter, Fred Lundy intercepted a fourth-down pass by Wilson deep inside Elsinore territory. Paloma Valley was unable to score on the ensuing drive, but the Wildcats got the ball right back on the next possession when Kre Webb recovered an Elsinore fumble near midfield.

Paloma Valley was forced to punt on its next possession, giving Elsinore the ball back with almost four minutes remaining and the chance to pull out a victory with a touchdown and extra point. It never happened, however.

After two straight incompletions against a solid Paloma pass defense, Wilson went to the air again on fourth down along the left sideline. Defensive back Felix Bogroff outjumped the receiver to knock the ball down (left) and give it back to the Wildcats, who killed the remaining time on the clock.

"I read it at the last second and got over there," Bogroff said about the defensive play. "I looked up and just jumped for the ball."

Esposito was pleased with the way his players responded late in the game.

"Those close games against Moreno Valley and Temecula Valley really gave our guys some character," he said. "Tonight they did it again; they found a way to win.

"That's what we needed. Starting out 5-0 is nice, but character building is the key. They made some mistakes earlier, but they didn't sulk and let up. They did what they had to do."

Junior running back Elliott Smith left the game in the third quarter with an injury to his right knee. The extent of his injury was not known Friday night.

Paloma Valley quarterback Brent Boehm turns upfield for a big gain in Friday's win over Elsinore.

Wildcats receiver Phillip Hauser stretches for extra yardage after a pass reception Friday night.

The training staff attends to junior Elliott Smith, who suffered a knee injury.

Prewitt Has Big Night in Paloma Valley's 56-12 Victory

Demarco Prewitt turns upfield on one of his four touchdown runs in Paloma Valley's victory Friday night. (Photos by David Stovall)

By Zac Force

Sophomore running back Demarco Prewitt rushed for 212 yards and four touchdowns and passed for another TD Friday night to lead Paloma Valley High to a 56-12 victory over West Valley in the Wildcats' homecoming game.

Prewitt compiled his rushing yardage on just 16 carries, giving him an average of over 13 yards per carry.

Prewitt gave all the credit to his offensive linemen, saying he could not achieve what he did without them.

"I am so grateful for my line," he said. "I have the best offensive line anyone could ask for."

Coach Bert Esposito said that Prewitt’s "future is gold."

Paloma Valley had a slow start, scoring only 7 points in the first quarter, but quickly turned it around, scoring 28 points in the second quarter and 21 points in the third. The Wildcats' defense also played well, sacking West Valley quarterback Mike Cordova (above) and controlling the line of scrimmage.

Paloma Valley quadrupled West Valley’s rushing with a total of 337 yards to 82 yards. The passing was closer, with Paloma passing for 221 yards to West Valley’s 293 yards. West Valley had more than triple Paloma’s passing attempts, however; the Mustangs threw the ball 51 times. Paloma racked up a total of 558 yards on 51 plays while West Valley had 375 total yards on 80 plays.

Paloma quarterback Brent Boehm had 170 yards passing and three touchdowns with no interceptions while his counterpart, Cordova, had one passing touchdown and one rushing touchdown with three interceptions. One of Boehm's TD passes covered 15 yards to RJ Benz (right).

The biggest advantage for West Valley was that it only accumulated 40 yards on six penalties while Paloma was flagged for 16 penalties for a total of 146 yards. A large part of Paloma’s penalties and penalty yards came from defensive pass interference calls.

Prewitt's touchdown pass covered 47 yards to Fred Lundy, who carried it into the end zone for a 27-0 Paloma Valley lead (below). It was never a contest after that.

Esposito believed it was "a good test and they played us tough. Hats off to them; the game was a lot closer than the score indicated."

"They threw the ball over 50 times and their quarterback played very well," Esposito continued. "Number eight was the man out there. He was incredibly difficult to stop."

No. 8 was wide receiver Elijah Brown, who caught eight passes for 103 yards and a touchdown for West Valley. Fellow wide receiver Markus Cordova caught seven passes for 102 yards.

The Wildcats scored touchdowns on eight of their 11 possessions.

Paloma Valley's next game is at home next Friday against Moreno Valley.

Quarterback Brent Boehm prepares to hand off to Elliott Smith early in Friday's game.

Sabrina Carrillo, shown here with her escort, was introduced as Homecoming Queen at halftime.

Paloma Valley Puts This One Away Early, Beats Sultana, 64-14

Quarterback Brent Boehm directs traffic as he heads upfield in Paloma Valley's big win Friday night.

A couple days before the high school football season started, Paloma Valley coach Bert Esposito said he wanted to see the Wildcats get off to a fast start.

Mission accomplished -- and then some.

Quarterback Brent Boehm passed for 270 yards and 5 touchdowns in just one half of play, the Paloma Valley defense smothered the opposition all night, and the Wildcats cruised to a 64-14 win over an outmanned Sultana team Friday night.

In their home opener, the Wildcats piled up 525 yards total offense, scoring virtually at will in building a 64-0 halftime lead. The second half was played with a running clock and Paloma Valley's second- and third-string players got a lot of experience as the team improved its record to 2-0.

Last week, Paloma Valley opened the season with a 61-6 victory at San Bernardino, meaning the Wildcats have outscored the opposition 125-20 the first two weeks of the season.

Sultana ballcarrier Stephan Sanford (11) is dragged down by Paloma Valley defender Ruben Colon (bottom) in the first quarter.

"I didn't expect this at all," said Esposito, who managed to get his starters two quarters of playing time before turning the game over to the reserves. "I watched their scrimmage against Rim of the World and I knew they (Sultana) could do some things.

"But after a while, I started to wonder what all we could do in this game. As it turned out, we could pretty much do anything. I was trying to keep my starters in for at least a half. It's not football strategy at a certain point; it's management strategy, trying to get all the kids in."

Playing their first game of the season, the Sultans appeared to take the lopsided defeat well. There were no accusations of running up the score and no trash talking on either side. Esposito even declined a roughing the kicker penalty on a punt that would've kept possession for the Wildcats, instead turning the ball over to the Sultans with the score 64-0 in the third quarter.

"Honestly, they were very good sports about it," said Boehm. "I have to give them props for that."

Sophomore Demarco Prewitt (right), the Wildcats' No. 1 running back this year, carried the ball only 4 times but made the most of them. He finished with 123 yards rushing and two touchdowns, including an 80-yard TD run near end of the first half. Elliott Smith, a junior, carried 3 times for 80 yards, including a 64-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

Another star of the Paloma Valley offense was wide receiver CJ Parker, who caught 5 passes for 116 yards and two scores. RJ Benz, Michael Valencia and Phillip Hauser also caught touchdown passes.

"He's a dynamic player," Esposito said about Parker. "You just put the ball in the air and tell him to go get it."

That's exactly what happened at the start of the game. After Fred Lundy returned the opening kickoff 43 yards for the Wildcats, Boehm hit Parker for a 37-yard gain. On the next play, Boehm lofted the ball toward the left corner of the end zone. Parker easily beat his defender for the catch and a 13-yard touchdown play.

Paloma Valley forced a Sultana punt and promptly marched 70 yards for another score, a 7-yard TD pass from Boehm to Valencia. On the ensuing kickoff, Sultana's Justin Flores fumbled the ball away and Lundy recovered for the Wildcats at the Sultana 22-yard line. On the very next play, Boehm hit Parker with a short pass and Parker carried the ball into the end zone.

Michael Valencia holds onto the ball and wards off a defender in the end zone for a 7-yard TD play.

Derek Davis' PAT kick gave the Wildcats a 21-0 lead and the rout was on.

Boehm, who was rested most of the preseason because of a sore shoulder, has shown no symptoms of lingering pain the first two games. Neither is he nor any of his teammates getting a big head because of the lopsided victories, he said.

"The coaches are very good at that," Boehm said with a smile. "They keep us in check and focused on each game."

CJ Parker hauls in a 23-yard touchdown pass to beat his defender in the first quarter.

Phillip Hauser heads for the end zone for a touchdown in the second quarter.

Friday night's easy victory gave the Paloma Valley cheerleaders plenty to celebrate.