The Eagles defended their home turf against the Riverdale Christian Ambassadors, Sept. 18. The team prepared all week for the first league game, for it would impact on who made it to the league championship.

The offense started off slow, as it did the previous week.  Once the team scored it was smooth for the rest of the game. The defense picked up the slack for the offense.

The Eagles did not play fundamentally sound but they still managed to buckle down and make a few big plays. Sophomore Tyler Villines, had the first touchdown run of the game for 40 yards. That gave them a spark and the offense started to click and moved the ball throughout the rest of the game.

Quarterback Tyler Breedlove started the game off with a 25-yard throw to wide receiver Tyler Vanderlinden, ’17. The team dropped a few passes after that, which made the fans skeptical for the rest of the game. The slow start would not impact the overall game in the end. The Eagles took the win with a score of 54-0.

The offense was productive and had 422 yards of total offense, 158 passing yards, and 264 rushing yards. Breedlove threw for 158 yards threw 21 times and completed 11, with two touchdowns throwing and rushed for one more. Tyler Villines, ’18, and Slater Wade, ’17, both ran for over 100 yards and 2 touchdowns each. Vanderlinden with 84 yards receiving in the game had a deep touchdown pass from Breedlove for 50 yards.

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The defense played with intensity and dominance. They recovered five fumbles and also had two interceptions. The team did not let the opponent get over 20 yards in one play in the entire game. Sophomore Roman Endicott played big on the defensive line, with eight tackles, a sack, and two fumble recoveries. Josh Freeman, ’16, plays middle linebacker and had a total of nine tackles but lead the eagles and was a big part of the dominance.

Senior Josh Freeman stepped up when the team needed him the most on defense.

“The team played well,“ Freeman said. ”Overall the coaches were pleased and both teams played to the end and it was a great learning experience. On defense I played well, the defense did their jobs and made my position easier to play and I felt like I did my part of the defensive unit.

Head Coach Mick Fuller pleased with the Eagles defense knows the offense will need to step up and be perfected for Mojave High.

“I was pleased with our aggressiveness on defense,” Fuller said. “We still have some work to do to with our offense to become more consistent and efficient. This week we have to execute our blocking schemes against a tough, unpredictable defense. Defensively we need to collapse mojave’s running lanes and be disciplined in our tackling.”

Contributions to this article was from Tyler Breedlove who can be reached via Twitter: @Tyler_Breed and via email: Tyler Breedlove.

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