Palm Desert falls short in road game at Yucaipa, happy with level of play as DEL awaits

After knocking off Serrano last Friday, the Palm Desert High football team only had six days before turning around and taking on another heavyweight foe Thursday night.

The visiting Aztecs almost came home with another impressive win, but fell just short in a 20-13 loss to Yucaipa. The Aztecs had one final drive that went inside the Yucaipa 10-yard-line, but turned it over on downs before they could get that game-tying score.

"The kids are disappointed and this one stings because we had our chances, but I'm excited about where we are now compared to where we were on Week 1," Aztecs coach Rudy Forti said. "This was one of our better offensive performances. We had several sustained drives. Yucaipa is a good team and they wore us down, but I was happy with our effort."

The Aztecs scored first on a 5-yard TD run by quarterback AJ Rivera and then added two first-half field goals by Nick Dangleis of 38 and 27 yards. They trailed 14-13 at the half and then held Yucaipa to just six points after halftime, but couldn't come up with a score of their own. Rivera injured his wrist in the game and was not able to finish.

This was a game that was supposed to be played two weeks ago, but was postponed due to poor air quality from wildfires. That means the Aztecs will go right into Desert Empire League play without the usual bye week beforehand.

Forti said since the team is playing well, he's kind of happy the way it worked out.

"Sometimes you're playing well and have momentum and then you hit that bye week before league and you have to start over," Forti said. "So now we can just keep it going and get ready for Xavier."

The Aztecs (2-3) face their Cook Street rivals Xavier Prep on Friday, Oct. 4 in a game at Palm Desert.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Palm Desert falls short in road game at Yucaipa, happy with level of play as DEL awaits