Undefeated Scots adjust to Hawks’ upset plan
- Updated: October 24, 2015
By Bill Dickens
© East County Sports.com
EL CENTRO (10-24-15) — The Red Hawks’ SAWYER ERNSBARGER scored on a 13-yard pass from quarterback VICTOR PARRA in the second quarter, and WYATT AGUILAR pounded a 37-yard field goal, but it wasn’t enough to overcome undefeated Vincent Memorial (8-0, 2-0) Friday night (Oct. 23) in the desert as the Fighting Scots claimed a 34-10 Manzanita League victory.
“We stopped them in the first quarter,” said Mountain Empire assistant coach DON ROLLINS, “but our offense couldn’t score today. We struggled on offense.”
“In the third quarter our defense started to step up but unfortunately we just couldn’t score,” Rollins added.
At one point Aguilar attempted to kick a field goal but the Scots ran into the Red Hawks holder, drawing a penalty.
“It got us to the 7-yard line but unfortunately we missed the field goal,” Rollins said. “It went high but the officials said it didn’t go through.”
“We recovered four fumbles but they forced fumbles too, and we were intercepted twice,” Rollins added.
Mountain Empire tried to get a quick score, but was intercepted by the Scots with 12.1 seconds left in the half. Instead of running the clock out, the Scots attempted another pass and were intercepted again by the Red Hawks, who in turn scored a 29-yard field goal with less than a second left in the half.
Things didn’t get any better in the second half for the Scots, who couldn’t move the ball on offense after some adjustments by the Red Hawks, but were doing enough on defense to stop a Mountain Empire squad that didn’t have much punch.
The Red Hawks missed a 30-yard field goal with 10:10 left in the third and the Scots scored their final touchdown of the game with 2:50 left in the fourth with a Hector Robinson 21-yard pass to Luis Angel Madrigal to seal the win.
“The start of the game, we were ready, we were pumped,” said Scots sophomore Juan Pablo Ruiz. “At the end they got used to our offense, they changed a little bit on defense and they covered us pretty good so we had to change some plays against their defense.”
The Scots are still the favorite, currently ranked No. 1 by the CIF power rankings.
