Takeaways:

• I report that La Quinta showed early promise but had inconsistency after their big opening win.
• I note Desert Hot Springs excels defensively, allowing very few points while lacking a clear offensive identity.
• I observe Rancho Mirage has dominant defensive metrics with many sacks and interceptions early in the season.
• I believe Centennial remains an elite program despite a tough early schedule that may temporarily affect their record.
• I say Hillcrest and Valley View are the reigning CIF champions and Hillcrest relies heavily on Reyes Ortiz.
• I conclude Murrieta Valley needs to find an identity and may use this season to rebuild toward future success.

Foreign.

We're going to start things off right into it as we're a little bit late into the football season already.

We're going to hit volleyball next time as well as some football.

But right now focusing on football for this episode we're going to break things down between the desert and more Riverside Central area teams have a few to talk about and they're the ones that have really made their impact known early on in this season.

So starting off in the desert we have La Quinta as our first team.

We're going to talk about of the new year of Varsity Vibes down in the desert where this new season begins for us and it starts with the team first in the Desert Sun Power Rankings.

The Falcons went 74 overall last year.

Continue the early season success.

They started 40 in the previous season.

Has them looking mighty dangerous early on in the season.

Then they took on Citrus Valley where the Hype train unfortunately hit a full stop.

Now they look ahead to hesperia next but 1 and 1.

The loss was to a team nearly 200 ranking spots ahead of them, so it's not the worst.

Take that with a grain of salt.

That one loss but a lot still is yet to be seen from La Quinta after what was a fiery start.

Falcons have got to learn how to take flight now on offense yet again.

Only 16 points.

Not going to get it cut compared to the 58 in your opener.

Still a lot to be seen from them now.

This one's a bit of a dark horse team we did not talk about at all yet on Varsity Vibes.

And that is Desert Hot Springs.

Bit of a dark horse is taking the early quarter of the race by storm.

Instead of lighting up the scoreboard, this team is locking it down.

Only 31 points allowed in three games.

Best way to catch teams by surprise is to play good defense when they're not expecting it.

They have put their offense in a perfect position.

You can't ask for much more to only have to put up two to three scores to end up walking away with the win, which is exactly what they have done.

They have not put up more than 25 points in a game.

It's a recipe for success that is tried and true in the game of football, but holding on to that success is a entirely different story for Desert Hot Springs.

They'll look to lock down Granite Hills in order to reach a 40 start but 30 is pretty good.

The only issue I see is so far they do not have an offensive identity.

They don't have a single point on the offensive side that really stands out or is that difference maker for them?

They're really riding on the back of that defense.

The last desert team we're going to talk about now is Rancho Mirage.

They're making their way through the desert only schedule this year and they are yet to lose.

Team's going to need to be tough and win out their pre league schedule.

I could easily see them pulling it off and I'm predicting that they will start 5 and oh to this new season.

They're going to need to likely run the table which they did two years ago in order to capture that title.

They were undefeated in that 30 start is going to help them build momentum which I think is going to turn into 5 and 0 and really have them looking like a powerhouse heading into league play.

That could easily win eight games, possibly more if they really, really focus and play well.

The real statistic that stands out for Rancho Mirage that makes the difference that has them in that sort of upper echelon of teams in the desert.

And I think the best team in the Desert Empire League, I think they're going to win that league.

16 Sacks in three games and four interceptions.

You want to talk about good defense like we did with Desert Hot Springs, look no further than Rancho Mirage.

This is an absolutely insane defense.

They are going off the charts to start this season.

I expect them to keep it rolling and if you get a good defense, defense wins championships.

Now we're going to head more towards the other side of Riverside away from the desert part and we're going to look at Centennial Verona.

Centennial Huskies, the best team in the county.

They have been for years now.

They have had a brutal hand dealt to them to open the season.

They suffered a bitter defeat in week two to Santa Margarita and those of you who remember that's the team they lost to in the Division 1 CIF finals last year.

They are set to take on modern day in their next game.

Huskies are an elite team and they will see the postseason in the Division 1 bracket.

But it has not been an ideal start for the CIFD1 bracket runner up of last year.

You go Santa Margarita, the reigning champs, one of the best teams in the country.

And then you go to a perennial best team in the country.

Modern day, that's a really tough schedule that could see them sitting at 1 and 2 after their first three games played.

Really uncommon territory for the Huskies, but I don't think they should be too worried.

I expect to see him turn it around and still finish up with a pretty solid season overall.

Now shout out.

Chaparral is trying their hand this year at being a powerhouse themselves.

Pumas were ranked 19th in California.

They just had a weird start, a blowout.

Lost to Mission Viejo 55 to 17.

Mission Viejo, powerhouse team in California.

Has been for years.

Pretty good team there.

Setting them at one on one.

Had them at that 19th ranking.

Then they played San Clemente, team that bounces around between Division 2 a lot.

They had the Pumas knocked down 1 and 2.

Now they're down to 31st overall in rankings, 32, 20 lost.

And now they take on another heavy hitter in Rancho Cucamonga.

That's not going to be a guaranteed win by any means necessary.

I think the schedule is too tough for Chaparral.

I think they're a good team, but I think the teams that they have to play are just a little bit better, just one notch or tier above, maybe even a little bit more because they had to play the Mission Viejo.

But overall they're a good team.

I don't think they're going to have the power it takes to outcome the tough sort of storm that their schedule is setting up for them.

They're not going to outlast it.

I don't see Chaparral end up making the playoffs, unfortunately.

Now the last team we're going to talk about is Murrieta Valley, another D2 perennial team and contender in that division.

Prime for disaster.

They had an 02 start headed into a game versus Cajon, a really tough opponent.

Now the Nighthawks managed a late touchdown very last second to overcome what would have been an 03 start to the season.

They ran behind a 29 to 10 second half performance to barely outlast Cajon.

35, 45 To 38.

Unbelievable game.

Now Myriada Valley, the Nighthawks are just a question mark of a team.

They need to find their identity.

They really are a team where you don't know what you're going to get when they take the field on Friday.

You know they're good, they're very well coached Their coaching staff does an incredible job up there, but the issue is is right now they're in a weird transition state.

They had a CIF title contender team just a couple of years ago.

Unfortunately they fell short for them in the title game.

But now you're in that years following where you're trying to get that sort of seniority class back up to the top, get them ready.

I don't know if this is the year for Murrieta Valli, but I could easily see the Nighthawks using this year as a great building block for a deeper playoff run next year, or possibly the year following.

Heading into our last little segment here for our first episode of the fall season, we're going to talk about our champions, the reigning CIF champions of Riverside.

And that is going to be Hillcrest and Valley View.

Now looking at Valley View, they started off two and one some really good offensive games before suffering their first first loss of the season, unfortunately in their third game.

But the team has played pretty well.

They started off at home with an opener versus Claremont.

That was a pretty good win.

Now this team, despite coming off a CIF championship, has not shown a super strong point.

Definitely on the offensive side of the football is where this team is going to be carried.

They're undefeated, they're only one game at home and they already have picked up a road win.

So when you can split those sort of early games, it's always a good sign.

They're going to have their work cut out for them though, going into league for the Sun Belt.

I mean they'll have Upland, Shadow Hills, JW North, Moreno Valley, Paris, Paloma Valley and Hillcrest still coming up on their schedule.

Not all of those are going to be league games, but the one that I have circled is that one in the final week against Hillcrest.

Talking about Hillcrest, I think this game is going to be for the Sun Belt Championship.

Hillcrest is on a tear.

The offense is blowing teams out of the water.

They are three and picking up right where they left off as CIF champions.

And a big part of that is their run game off the charts.

Right now they are averaging over 200 yards a game, specifically just for one player.

Reyes Ortiz, their senior running back, is averaging 199 yards per game.

Already has nine touchdowns, so average three touchdowns through the game.

Through those first three games as well, only on 77 carries, averaging 7.8 yards per carry so far.

He is the MVP of the Riverside football season up to this point.

That's something we were going to add this year is adding those awards of specific players and right now Reyes Ortiz running away with it figuratively and literally.

Hillcrest is going to be a team I'm super excited to continue following throughout this season.

They're on watch for another CIF championship run and we look forward to seeing if they can end up pulling that off.

Next episode we're going to have our volleyball recap for you and if there's other football exciting news, we'll throw that in there as well.

If not, stay tuned for our episode after that which will be more Back to Football focus and we'll trade off between volleyball and football and eventually meld the two together in our future episodes here in the fall season on Varsity Vibes.

It's good to be back.

Brought to you by the United America Network.