Mountain Valley 7A Stay Focused in Win Over Canyon MS, 40-12
The Mountain Valley 7A team ran all over the Canyon Jaguars in keeping the Hawks in a good position to win their district crown if they can stay focused and win out, 40-12.
“This was tough coming off of four days without a practice,” Head Coach Brandon Burger said. “We did not make silly mistakes and kept focused.”
Focused was a truism when a Jace Morales 58 yard first play touchdown run set the tone in this win with a quick lead and a Aiden Willis run for two points and an, 8-0 advantage.
That ‘tone’ was not deaf as the Hawks continued being focused in scoring 3 more times before Canyon Middle School could respond late in that first half, 28-06.
In the first half, MV had two players already over the 100 yards rushing plateau when Morales (128) scored on a 75 yard run and Eli Hammons (111) followed with a 72 yarder.
“In previous games I have been nervous and today I did not have any butterflies when we were warming up and I just had fun and kicked some butt,” Morales said succinctly. On thoughts with the return and topping 100 yards rushing, “Dream come true and this is the complete opposite of a nightmare.”
Hammons was to the point, “It was a good game and I could not have done this without our offensive line…Ricky (Woodling) and Trenton Hurst….just all of the lineman opened the holes.”
Both runs were one snap drives in this dominating performance.
First Possession: Jace Morales 58 yard run.
Third Possession: Jace Morales 75 yard run.
Fourth Possession: Eli Hammons 72 yard run.
Fifth Possession: Eli Hammons 23 yard run in 3 plays.
Add a kick-off return for 65 yards to close out the half by Jace Morales and the damage had been done.
Those runs had a lot of help from the Hawk Offensive Linemen and Ricky Woodling responded on how the run game blossomed in this battle, “It is great to know that I did my job and I like to see the points going up on the scoreboard.”
A Hayes Holladay fumble recovery was sandwiched between those two 70 yard plays had Mountain Valley with more touchdowns (5) than first downs (4) in that first half of genuflecting by the visitors.
Oh yeah, add an interception between two other Hawk scores with that snag coming from JR Lindell and a Hawk, 240 yards of offense in 16 minutes of play that averaged out to a decent 15 yards per minutes of dominance.
Mountain Valley pulled off the Hawks in that second half scoring in the last quarter with a 3 play 37 yard drive that had Gavin Williams with a 25 yard explosive play setting up a Willis 5 yard run for those finishing touches.
Staying focused will be important as next week this MV team will be on the road against Smithson Valley MS who are undefeated. A win can help in realizing a district crown by just staying focused.
Go Hawks!!
1 2 3 4 Final Canyon MS 7A 0 6 6 0 12 MV Hawks 7A 8 26 0 6 40 Scoring Summary: MV-Jace Morales 58 yard run (Aiden Willis run), 7:38, 1st MV-Jace Morales 75 yard run (run failed), 6:51, 2nd MV-Eli Hammons 72 yard run (Morales run), 5:27, 2nd MV-Eli Hammons 23 yard run (run failed), 4:01, 2nd CJ-Jaguars with a 5 yard run (pass failed), 0:35, 2nd MV-Jace Morales 65 yard kick-off return (pat failed), 0:22, 2nd CJ-Jaguars with a 14 yard pass (run failed), 3:36, 3rd MV-Aiden Willis 5 yard run (run failed), 5:06, 4th Team Stats Jaguars Hawks Total Yards 139 285 First Downs 9 7 Rush/Yards 23/64 19/285 Comp/Att/Int 6/9/1 0/1/0 Passing Yards 75 0 Punts/Ave 2/20.5 1/28.0 Fumble/Lost 3/2 1/0 Penalties 1-5 4-17 Passing Comp Att Pct Yds Int TD Tyler Soza 0 1 .000 0 0 0 Rushing Att Yds Ave Lg TD Jace Morales 4 128 32.0 75 2 Eli Hammons 5 111 22.2 72 2 Gavin Williams 2 26 13.0 25 0 Aiden Willis 4 17 4.3 7 1 Gram Simpson 3 4 1.3 3 0 Tyler Soza 1 -1 — - 0