BIG BEAR – The Baldwin Park football team braved the snow and 20-degree weather when they traveled up the mountains to Big Bear to take on the Bears in the CIF Southern Section Division 11 quarterfinals.
In what was thought to be one of the biggest home-field advantages in their playoff bracket, the cold weather played no factor as Baldwin Park jumped out to a 21-point lead early in the first half and didn’t look back as they held on to defeat Big Bear 28-21 on Friday night.
The Braves (7-5) will be back on the road in their semifinal matchup next week, as they travel to Portola, who defeated Santa Paula in the other quarterfinal matchup.
Big Bear (8-3) came close to tying up the game after being down by 21 points at the half, but Baldwin Park forced a fumble and recovered with 3:46 left in the game to hold on to survive.
Quarterback Jake Garcia accounted for every Baldwin Park touchdown. He threw for three touchdowns and rushed for one. Garcia has now accounted for eight touchdowns in the Braves’ two playoff games.
“This one (win) feels good. None of us ever played football in the snow,” Garcia exclaimed. “For us to come out here and battle adversity, playing in elements that we’ve never played before, we did a helluva job.”
Despite the cold weather, the Braves came out and weren’t afraid to air it out. Garcia hit Randle Tebo for a 25-yard gain on the first play of the game, which was indicative of Baldwin Park’s offensive game plan.
“That’s just my coaches, they believe in me and believe in what I could do. Never once did we stick to running during this week’s practice,” Garcia said. “We just believed in our receivers and believed in our lineman.”
After Garcia took an 8-yard carry in for a touchdown on the Braves’ opening drive of the game, Baldwin Park tacked on another touchdown at the end of the first quarter when Garcia hit Tremell Horn for the first of two touchdowns Horn would score.
Horn finished the game with over 60 yards receiving and two touchdowns.
Baldwin Park could have had an even bigger game when they jumped out a 28-7 lead in the second quarter and were driving when Garcia threw an interception in the end zone with less than a minute to go in the first half.
Braves’ head coach Robert Maxie said besides the turnover, Garcia was the catalyst for the Baldwin Park offense despite the weather.
“I expected him not to turn the ball over, but we will work on that. He didn’t do anything tonight that we didn’t expect him to or hasn’t been doing all year,” Maxie noted.
Big Bear came out a different team in the second half. The Bears scored 14 unanswered points to start the second half and cut the deficit to seven points with 10:37 left in the fourth quarter.
Although the Braves got a shutout in the second half, it wasn’t without valiant efforts from Garcia on the ground, including a 13-yard rush on third and 12 with 8:30 left in the game to keep the Braves’ drive moving as they were backed up deep in their own territory.
Maxie added that he wants to see better from his team in the second half.
“We didn’t execute in the second half like we would like. We didn’t score any points. We didn’t take care of the football. We didn’t block well, didn’t tackle well,” Maxie added. “Those are things that can lose a football game, but we made plays when it counts and that’s all that matters.”