BHS Football: Battle tested Aztecs begin playoffs

BARSTOW • There wasn’t a banquet circuit, speaking tours or endorsment deals.

Heck, the Barstow High School football team would have settled for just a bit of respect.

Rewards? Nope

Teams looking to borrow the playbook? No, no.

There have been no red carpets for the Aztecs in 2009.

It’s been a rough climb for the Aztecs coming off a run to the CIF-Southern Section Eastern Division Championship game last year. However, today the Aztecs begin what they’ve talked about for 11 months — the playoffs and another chance at the Eastern Division title that they narrowly missed claiming in 2008.

“This is what we’ve been practicing for,” Barstow coach Jose Rubio said. “Things have been pretty upbeat.”
Barstow opens the playoffs tonight at 7 against Palm Springs, the same team the Aztecs beat in the second round of the playoffs last season.

While Citrus Hill has rolled over opponents in defending it’s Eastern Division title from a year ago, Barstow’s road hasn’t been so smooth.

The Aztecs have claimed a lack of respect ever since the title game. There are those who called their playoff run a fluke and still doubt their abilities this year.  

“A lot of people passed us last year as just lucky,” senior lineman Philip Albornoz said. “This year, we want to get to the finals and prove last year wasn’t a mistake.”

The Aztecs take one of their most experienced teams in recent years to the postseason.

Rubio coached most of the current seniors when he was the freshman coach and noted even before last year’s championship game that the core of the team would still be back for his season.

“We used to call these guys the Army,” Rubio said. “We lost some of the numbers, but still, a lot of the kids are still there.”

Although the Aztecs don’t have the speed of backs DaMario Webb or Jerrelle Green anymore, their roster sports 24 seniors many of whom played a role in their rise to the championship game.

“Every underclassmen knows that if they are going to play next year this is the team they are going to stick with,” Albornoz said. “The playoffs really showed us how good of a team we have and how far we can make it. Even with losing a couple seniors we still have basically the same team we have this year.”

It’s a senior group that has added the experience of a long playoff run on their resumes. Players said they learned to play as a team and learned about a new level of football during the postseason last year

“It showed us what we have to do and how hard it’s going to be,” senior tight end Ike Miller said.

Many called it the most fun they’ve had playing football.  Ask any of the Aztecs about their memories of last year’s post season and they’ll talk fondly of magical time.

“When playoff came, everyone was like one big family,” senior linebacker Fernando Trujillo said. “We rolled on teams and just kept playing and playing.”

To add to that experience, the Aztecs have gone through a tough regular season this year.

From a reality check against Quartz Hill to a losing the Axe against Victor Valley, it’s been anything but a victory lap for Barstow.

Once the Aztecs hit the Desert Sky League schedule, the play only got tougher. In a league where games used to be decided by touchdowns, many games came down to a few plays. But that hasn’t necessarily been bad news for Barstow, even if the Aztecs had to fight just to make the playoffs.

“It helped us because we had fierce competition,” senior defensive back Carlos Jackson said. “We are on our heals still instead of playing easy teams. We can handle another hard team coming in.”

And now the Aztecs prize for being the Eastern Division runners up a year ago, slugging through a tough league and finishing with a 7-3 record?

A road game against a Palm Springs team that Barstow predicted to lose to by two touchdowns but beat 34-20 a year ago in the playoffs.

It’s par for the course for an already well tested team.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4124 or
mpeters@desertdispatch.com