Until Friday, Madden Ruberg hadn’t played a full game of football in nearly two years. But on Senior Night at La Quinta High School, Ruberg stepped onto Dan Armstrong Field and led the Blackhawks to a dramatic 44-34 comeback win over Rancho Mirage.
The senior tailback scored three touchdowns, including one to give La Quinta (3-4) the lead for good with just 1:51 remaining.
After rushing for 1,450 yards and 14 touchdowns and being named the Desert Empire League's offensive MVP as a sophomore, a knee injury forced Ruberg to miss all all but the very end of his junior season, in 2025. He had a total reconstruction of his right knee during the summer of 2025, but eventually returned for La Quinta’s playoff game at Fullerton last November. In that
game, he hyperextended the knee after just six carries.
The road back to the field was not an easy one. It included painful rehab and lots of physical work.
“I got put in a rough spot,” Ruberg said Friday. “But when you’re at your lowest, it’s a different type of drive, honestly.”
Ruberg’s mom, who was photographing Friday's game from the sideline, said that her son had been preparing a long time for the moment.
“He was ready,” Jenn Ruberg said. “He worked so hard to get back because he loves playing football.”
Lost in Ruberg’s storyline was the fact that La Quinta trailed by 14 early in the game. The Blackhawks, behind a raucous home crowd, battled back. It started with a 59-yard touchdown run by Ruberg, then a 56-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback Mason Flores to senior receiver Jesse Olloque.
Rancho Mirage (4-3) answered with a touchdown catch by sophomore receiver JaDarius Hester to give the Rattlers a 21-15 lead at the intermission.
But Ruberg scored on a 42-yard run on the first drive of the second half to again give La Quinta the lead, and the lead changed four more times in the second half.
With 2:21 to play, La Quinta trailed, 34-29, on fourth down and just nine yards from the end zone. Flores threw an incomplete pass and, for a moment, it appeared that the Rattlers would emerge with the win. But pass interference was called on the play and Ruberg scored for a third time a few plays later.
Rancho Mirage had a chance to drive the field and win the game, but senior defensive back Matthew Rivas then intercepted a Rattlers pass and senior tailback Gregory Mora added another touchdown to seal the win.
“There’s ups and downs in the game of football just like in life,” La Quinta head coach Ramon Ruiz said. “We get those downs we’ve got to fight, we’ve got to be resilient, and they came through today.”
La Quinta is now 2-0 in the Desert Empire League and with Ruberg fully back, the Blackhawks can win an outright DEL title if they win their next three games.
“For him to come back and show what he’s got,” Ruiz said, “he looked good. He’s got a different gear out there.
“But this was a full team effort.”
The three stars
Aside from Ruberg, I have to also give a nod to Olloque. At 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, he's basically a line backer playing receiver and he made several big catches that kept the chains moving. His big touchdown catch also completely changed the momentum of the game, I felt.
Hester scored on a reception and threw a touchdown pass on an end-around pass, which marked the third time in the last two games that he's done that. I've seen enough to label Hester the most versatile receiver in the vallehy this season.
Takeaways
I've seen enough to now know that La Quinta is, without much debate, the best team in the Coachella Valley. This team has everything you want from a good team -- a solid offensive line, a capable quarterback, an aggressive defense and multiple playmakers on offense. This Blackhawks team has all of that.
La Quinta can win an outright league title by winning its three remaining games, against Palm Springs, Xavier Prep and Palm Desert. That feels doable after Friday's win.
For Rancho Mirage, there's some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that they held the lead in the final four minutes in each of the last two games and lost both of those games. That'll hurt.
The good news is that this team held the lead for the majority of those two games, against arguably the two best teams in the league. Barring some injuries, I don't see the Rattlers losing again this season in the DEL. I think this team is still a playoff team, but there's obviously some work to do to get there.
Andrew John covers sports in the Coachella Valley at The Desert Sun. Email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: In dramatic return, Madden Ruberg leads La Quinta past Rancho Mirage
