Mtn. Valley 7th Grade Split with Navarro, 16-8 & 8-26
District Champions 7'B' Squad with Scoreboard saying it all. Congrats!!
Mountain Valley 7th A squad was much better than this final score as turnovers played a key roll in a, 26-8 loss to Navarro for their last game of this season at Hawk Stadium.
Navarro is not a team you can beat very often when you have the turnover bug. The Panthers are a ground team that can churn out yards while bleeding the clock.
Those two realities were present in this battle, as two fumbles and interception led to a touchdown with a lot of lost time for the visitors and no time to make up the deficit for Mountain Valley.
Navarro had first dibs and moved the ball 64 yards on 11 plays while taking off all but 1:34 left on the first quarter clock.
Then two plays and a fumble for Mountain Valley left the Hawk offense looking from the sideline again. All told, MV had the ball for seven total plays in the first half.
Navarro is a good example of teams that very seldom make mistakes. Just two penalties for seven yards and no turnovers was the difference in this game.
Starting the second half, Leroy Herrera, had a pick six as he intercepted a pass and ran 40 yards increasing the Panthers lead to 18-0.
Mountain Valley then had a ten play drive to Navarro’s four yard line when that fumbleitis struck the Hawks keeping them out of the scoring column once again.
The Hawks finally did break the ice when they capitalized on a short punt and moved 26 yards in eight plays.
Cruz Flores was the spark in this drive with a nifty 17 yard catch and run, that looked like someone trying to catch minnows in a bucket.
Some workload runs with Micah St John and a sneak by Quarterback Will Joyner finally had this Hawk team realize that there was gold at the end of the goal line.
Mountain Valley was on Navarro’s 15 yard line when time ran out for the Hawks.
Time running out was the theme in a game for a running team like Navarro and next time, a few less mistakes will make this game much more interesting.
“This team beat Wimberley, 30-8 this year and our coaches said that they had good speed,” End/QB Ben Fulton commented. “Everyone will be back next year and when we come back, then we will beat this team.”
1 2 3 4 Final Navarro Seventh 'A' 6 6 6 8 26 Mountain Valley 7th 'A' 0 0 0 8 8 Scoring Summary: N7A-Hayden McCurry 1 yard run (run failed), 1:34, 1st N7A-McCade 9 yard pass from Herrera (run failed), 0:15, 2nd N7A-Herrera 40 yard interception return (run failed), 4:34, 3rd MV7-Will Joyner 1 yard run (Will Joyner run), 2:18, 4th N7A-Leroy Herrera 54 yard run (McCurry to McCade pass), 1:14, 4th
Game Stats Panther 7A Hawks 7A Total Yards 143 159 First Downs 8 8 Rushes/Yards 31/134 22/90 Comp/Att/Int 1/3/0 4/9/1 Passing Yards 9 69 Punts/Average 1/23 1/20 Fumbles/Lost 0/0 2/2 Penalties-Yards 2-7 6-58
Passing Comp Att Pct Yards TD Int Will Joyner 4 9 .444 69 0 1
Rushing Att Yards Ave Lg TD Micah St John 12 69 5.8 18 0 Will Joyner 10 21 2.1 14 1
Receiving No Yards Ave Lg TD Cruz Flores 3 65 31.7 41 0 Ben Fulton 1 4 4.0 4 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mountain Valley Hawk Seventh ‘B’ team controlled both sides of the ball in their win over Navarro on their last game of this season, 16-6.
The Hawks ran over five minutes of the clock on their first drive but stalled on their own 14 yard line.
Navarro took over deep in their own territory and found out that this Hawk team could play some pretty salty defense.
On a fourth down needing two yards for a first, Navarro fumbled as the Hawk defense retrieved the ball after a seven yard loss on this play.
It took MV only four plays to score what would prove to be enough points to win this game, when QB Noah Crocker found Split End Matthew Rhodes for a three yard touchdown.
Rhodes also capped off the drive with a pass to Fullback Parker Reno for the two point conversion.
Navarro returned the kick-off 63 yards to MV’s 17 yard line and with the return a lot of momentum.
On a fourth down needing three yards, Navarro had a bomb go off on their side of the ball on their next play, when Linebacker Bradley Adamson broke through the line and took the Panther runner down like a cowboy would take down a calf in the roping competition.
“They took out Bryce Pearson (his close friend) on the play before and so they doubled teamed me and I was a giant and ran them over,” Jolly Green Giant Adamson said with a loud voice.
Mountain Valley held Navarro to 18 yards on 14 plays, giving you an idea of how well this defense was doing in this game for the first half.
Starting the second half, the Panthers fumbled again on their first possession and this time MV capitalized with a 47 yard 12 play drive, scoring on their first play of the fourth quarter.
Three straight completions to Matthew Rhodes for 36 yards was the stake that drove home this drive to the end zone.
“I saw the throw and knew they were coming,” Split End Rhodes recalled on his 17 yard reception on the drive. “Both their players split, then one cut in behind Bryce (Pearson) and then all I had to do is get fast and hurdle the next guy.”
Jonathon Rico also chipped in with two nine yard runs and Reno capped it off from two yards out.
Navarro had one last drive that had a good result for the Panthers, driving 57 yards with a 35 yard run that at the time doubled their total offensive output up to that point in this game.
Rico did not give Navarro a chance to play offense again as he ran 26 yards to run out the clock on his last five plays of the game.
“I like running because I get to hit people,” Running Back Rico said when asked if he liked defense or offense better.
“I’m running better mostly because my ankle has gotten better.”
The good news is that all those nicks and bruises will have plenty of time for healing before their next game as Eighth Graders.
Quarterback Crocker said it best as he was coming off the field, “This makes us feel good about our team, we won District and we are brothers and we can win more!”
1 2 3 4 Final Navarro Seventh 'B' 0 0 0 6 6 Mountain Valley 7th 'B' 0 8 0 8 16 Scoring Summary: MV7-Matthew Rhodes 3 yd pass from Crocker (Parker Reno pass from Crocker), 4:55, 2nd MV7-Parker Reno 2 yard run (Noah Crocker run), 6:25, 4th N7B-Navarro 1yard run (run failed), 3:05, 4th
Game Stats Panthers 7B Hawks 7B Total Yards 89 153 First Downs 6 8 Rushes/Yards 23/89 25/107 Comp/Att/Int 0/2/0 5/8/0 Passing Yards 0 46 Punts/Average 0/0 0/0 Fumbles/Lost 2/2 0/0 Penalties-Yards 0/0 5-27
Passing Comp Att Pct Yards TD Int Noah Crocker 4 7 .571 34 1 0 Jonathon Rico 1 1 1.000 12 0 0
Rushing Att Yards Ave Lg TD Jonathon Rico 19 77 4.1 11 0 Parker Reno 4 14 3.5 10 1 Matthew Rhodes 2 16 8.0 8 0
Receiving No Yards Ave Lg TD Matthew Rhodes 4 39 9.8 18 1 Parker Reno 1 7 7.0 7 0
