The San Dimas Saints and the Bonita Bearcats faced off on December 15th for their annual rivalry match, after Bonita took home the Citrus Bowl score of 57-33 the previous year. This year’s game took place at San Dimas High School, where both teams fought to hold onto the Citrus Bowl.
In the end, both teams played hard to come out with the win, but ultimately only one team could come out on top, and that´s exactly what the Saints did, coming out on top with the win score being 56-60. The Saints’ Record after the game is now 5-7. They will continue their season and play Charter Oak next week.
Before the game, Anthony Cervantes was asked what his mindset for this game was and how he prepared for the game, and he said, ¨My mindset before a game is to win and make sure that we reach our accomplishment, and that’s winning as a team/family. Since last year, since we didn’t win, we didn’t let that define us. If anything, we want to get better and be better as a team¨
The game started with the ref throwing up the ball. Bonita gets the ball, and the teams go back and forth across the court. At the beginning of the game, you could tell it was going to be a very intense game. The Saints were the 1st to put numbers up on the board by scoring a layup score, being 2-0, but Bonita quickly responded to that by making two free throws to tie the score at the start of the game. For the rest of the 1st quarter, it was going back and forth, scoring on each other, but Bonita took the early lead and kept it that way for the rest of the quarter, the score being 9-16 going into the 2nd quarter. For the start of the 2nd quarter, the Saints were the 1st to put up points on the board making the score now 13-18 and for the rest of the quarter both teams were going at it scoring on each other and it got intense, by the end of 2nd quarter it was now 26-33 but Bonita still had the lead on the Saints.
Halftime came, and the dance and cheer team did their own separate halftime show.
In the start of the 3rd quarter Bonita was the 1st to put up points on the board now being up by 9, score being 26-35, the game kept getting closer as the Saints made two back to back 3s now putting the score to 32-35, the crowd at the games were cheering loud as they could, you could tell the Saints weren’t willing to lose this year. The game kept the same tempo for the remainder of the quarter.
The Saints seemed to be coming back, but would be short by a few points. They ended the quarter with Bonita up 40-42, still a very close game. Start of the last quarter the Saints kept putting up a fight not willing to go out with a lose, as they were the 1st to put up points on the scoreboard, the Saints tied the game by making two free throws now being 42-42, despite the Saints tying the game they didn’t keep it tied as Bonita proceeded to take back the lead. The game was marked by aggression from both teams, with each scoring on the other’s back-to-back, but the Saints managed to come back and tie the game.
With 2 minutes left on the clock the Saints were down again score being 51-55 both teams competing to take home the Citrus cup, with a minute left on the clock the score was now 56-55 Saints being the leading scorer, as the game grew closer the crowd got more hyped and way more intense chanting non stop but Bonita managed to add 3 points. There were only 31 seconds left on the clock after the team’s timeout. Bonita had the ball. As the timer kept ticking, both teams played more aggressively to try to stop each other from scoring, but in the end, Bonita came out with the win, securing the game with two free throws to finish the night. It was a very close game, both teams playing extremely hard. 56-60
After the game, Keenan Hoyt, a sophomore on Varsity, was asked how he felt the team did and how he thinks the game helped the team, and he stated, ¨I think the team did great, we put up a great fight all night. We almost had it, we came so close, and it feels good to be able to play with the seniors tonight. There were a few mistakes made, but we kept balling out and tonight was a good game.¨
The Saints’ record after the game is now 5-7, and the season still has a long way to go. Next week, they will play Charter Oak, which is 5-6 after a loss to La Canada.
