Wild finish: Rancho Mirage grabs first win of season with field goal in final seconds

Ethan Zamora ran for three touchdowns and Marcos Ceja Jr. kicked a 24-yard field goal in the closing seconds to push the Rancho Mirage Rattlers to their first football win of the season, a 37-34 victory over Chaffey High School in Ontario.

Ceja’s winning kick ended a back-and-forth game between the Rattlers (1-4), who had not won a game this season, and Chaffey (3-1), who had not lost a game until Friday.

“We haven’t been doing anything different the last few weeks,” Rancho Mirage head coach L.D. Matthews said. “The kids just decided to come out and run the offense.”

The winning kick was set up by a 25-yard kickoff return by Abel Flores and a 45-yard pass from Zamora to Alex Sainz. Chaffey took the kickoff after the field goal, but Rancho Mirage’s Adrian Vasquez intercepted Chaffey’s last-second pass.

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Zamora threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Sainz in the first half. Zamora then scored on runs of 3, 13, and 3 yards in the second half, the last giving Rancho Mirage a 34-28 lead in the fourth quarter.

Chaffey tied the game late in the fourth quarter, setting up the Rattlers’  win at the end.

“(Chaffey) was 3-0, and they had a huge offensive line, but they struggled at time. They had two big fullbacks, maybe 260 pounds, and they ran power at us,” Matthews said. “We rotated 17 or 18 guys into the game, just to sacrificing their bodies.”

Matthews said Josh Walls, who scored the first touchdown of the night for Rancho Mirage on an 8-yard run, ran hard throughout the night.

Rancho Mirage has a week off next week before starting Desert Empire League play at home against Palm Springs on Sept. 30.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Rancho Mirage grabs first win on closing field goal