Rowe Got Stops. Pimentel Got Points. McHi Got the City.

DITV956 Game of the Week Recap:

McHi 33, Rowe 7

The final says McHi won by 26. If you watched the first half, you know Rowe made the Bulldogs work for every bit of it.

It was 13-7 at the break. Ramiro Alex Leon had found Jakob Faz for a long touchdown, and Rowe had the city title game right there in reach. McHi came in 4-0, but nobody across town was rolling out a carpet for the Bulldogs.

Rowe forced McHi to settle for field goals four times. Iker Pimentel made settling expensive. Forty-two. Twenty-seven. Twenty. Thirty-eight. Four kicks, four makes, 12 points. That math gets rough for Rowe. Your defense keeps McHi out of the end zone, and the Bulldogs still keep adding to the lead. A stop is a stop, but Pimentel made sure none of them came free.

That’s the tough part for Rowe: keeping McHi from scoring touchdowns was working. But to flip the game, Rowe needed points of its own after those stops. McHi’s 33 was its lowest total through five games, and the Bulldogs still had enough ways to keep the scoreboard moving.

After halftime, McHi took the game out of Rowe’s hands. The Bulldogs won the second half 20-0.

Luke Laurel threw for 245 yards and two touchdowns, finding Joaquin Alvarez twice for scores. Cole Morley took the right sideline for a 66-yard score after left guard Matthew Guerra cleared space. Morley had the wheels, no doubt. But don’t follow the ball and miss the work up front: Guerra helped make that crease worth hitting.

That’s what made McHi hard to catch. Rowe could win enough snaps to force four kicks, but Laurel could still connect through the air, and one crease was all Morley needed. The Bulldogs didn’t need every drive to look clean to put points on the board.

Rowe got one explosive score. McHi’s defense gave it nothing else on the scoreboard. Hayden Helgeson’s fourth-quarter strip sack put the last stamp on it.

Here’s what carries beyond the rivalry: Rowe showed it could make McHi work for touchdowns. McHi showed it could keep stacking points anyway. Pimentel hit four field goals, the offense scored three touchdowns, and the defense held Rowe to seven.

McHi is 5-0. That’s how a six-point game at halftime turns into 33-7.

Rowe got stops. Pimentel got points. McHi got the city.