The Rancho Mirage High School bounce-back began Friday.
At Yucca Valley, the Rattlers opened the 2026 season with a 19-7 win, and in the process stifled what many expect to be an exciting Trojan offense this season.
The win came after Rancho Mirage finished the 2025 season with five consecutive losses and a last-place finish in the Desert Empire League.
“It’s really exciting,” Rattlers head coach LD Matthews said. “The fact that we’re 10 seniors strong this year, and those guys are leading. We had a lot of sophomores and juniors get their first start tonight.”
Jadarius Hester caught a pair of touchdown passes for the Rattlers in the win. Deegan Storm scored for the Trojans in the third quarter, but Reid Keane added a third touchdown for the Rattlers with 19 seconds remaining to seal the outcome.
Rancho Mirage held Yucca Valley star receiver Aiden Pope without a touchdown in the game.
“We know what we have to work on this week in practice,” Yucca Valley head coach Jeremy Johnson said.
While the win isn’t exactly an upset, it showed that the Rattlers’ backslide following back-to-back league titles in 2023 and 2024 was likely short-lived. Yucca Valley has been a CIF Southern Section playoff teams for five consecutive years and has held its own against some of the area’s top teams. But Rancho Mirage neutralized the Trojans from the start.
Yucca Valley’s young offensive line and mistakes in the passing game, including a pair of interceptions near the end zone, made the game more difficult for the Trojans than it probably should have been.
Three stars of the game
It goes without saying that Hester is an obvious one.
The second star of the game would be Rattlers quarterback Cael Woody. He threw three touchdown passes and ran the read-option like a pro. Woody, a dual-threat senior, kept the chains moving for the Rattlers late in the game, which ended up being vital in the win.
For Yucca Valley, junior linebacker Silias Bloodworth was all over the field. I’d be shocked if he didn’t finish with at least 15 tackles.
Takeaways
This story has been updated to add new information.
Andrew John covers sports and recreation in the Coachella Valley for The Desert Sun. Email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com. Find him on Instagram at @desertwriter.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Rancho Mirage shows turnaround already under way, stuffs Yucca Valley
Reporting by Andrew John, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
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By Andrew John, Palm Springs Desert Sun | USA TODAY Network
