AG rebounds with win over Washington

The Arroyo Grande Eagles offensive juggernaut is back - at least for one night.

It was run, run, run - then run some more - as the Eagles posted a 61-26 victory over the George Washington High School Eagles of San Francisco in a rare Saturday night matchup at Arroyo Grande's Doug Hitchen Stadium.

“They didn't want the George Washington kids to miss a day of school with a long Friday bus trip down here,” said A.G. Athletic Director Jim Fogarty. “So we decided to play it tonight (Saturday).”

The A.G. running game was so good, in fact that the Eagles only attempted two passes all night. Nevertheless, they scored touchdowns the first five times they had the ball in the first half. The first-half clock ran out on their sixth possession and the Eagles went into the locker room with a 35-8 lead on the G.W. Eagles (2-1).

A.G.'s Eagles (1-3) opened the second half with a 44-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown, then ran to touchdowns on their next two possessions, and closed out their scoring with another defensive TD. Arroyo Grande punted just once all night.

Arroyo Grande put up 503-yards rushing on the night.

The A.G Eagles were led by George Lopez who had 113-yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries, Andrew Reza who logged 90-yards on 10 carries, Eric Marshall with 108-yards on two carries - including a 90-yard touchdown run, Bo Cabalar who ran for 55-yards and two TDs on three carries Matt Velez with 65-yards on six carries, Kyle Reinhardt with 23-yards on four carries and Ethan Vierra with 45-yards and one touchdown on five carries.

The G.W. Eagles were also able to move the ball, putting up 262-yards rushing on the night.

George Washington was led by DeMon Jones who picked up 103-yards on 11 carries, Grandville Taylor who totaled 54-yards on nine carries, Maurice Barton with 32-yards on six carries and quarterback Derf Butler with 36-yards on seven carries.

Arroyo Grande's juggernaut got rolling right from the start. They took the opening kickoff and marched 65-yards on six plays -capped off with a 40-yard Cabalar run. Colt McLaughlin's point after put A.G. up 7-0 just 1:30 into the game.

After forcing George Washington to punt on its first possession, Arroyo Grande came right back with a 43-yard eight-play drive with Cabalar picking up his second TD on a 6-yard run.

But George Washington wasn't ready to quit.

The San Francisco eagles bounced right back with a 5-play, 41-yard touchdown drive, capped off with Maurice Barton's 2-yard run. DeMon Jones raced into the end zone with the 2-point conversion to cut A.G.'s lead to 14-8.

Arroyo Grande came right back with an 8-play, 67-yard drive that spanned the end of the first quarter and beginning of the second. Lopez bulled his way into the end zone on a 16-yard run for that score.

Also before the half, JD Gonzalez had a 3-yard touchdown run and Lopez ran one in from 5-yards out and the A.G. Eagles were on their way to the first win of the season.

A.G. scored on G.W.'s first possession to open the second half when defensive back Jordan Murray picked up an errant G.W. lateral and raced 44-yards for the score.

Marshall then popped a 90-yard TD run the next time A.G. had the ball.

With the score 47-8, G.W. Butler threw a 24-yard scoring strike to Anthony Marshall to cut the score to 47-14.

Back came the A.G. Eagles and Vierra who ran one in from 16-yards out to give A.G. a 54-14 lead at the end of three.

G.W. wasn't done trying. Grandville Taylor scored twice, on a 5-yard run then on a 50-yard run to get G.W. to with 54-26 but time was rapidly running out.

With less than one-minute left in the game, A.G. linebacker Jeff Quaglino picked up a G.W. fumble and raced it 39-yards into the end zone.

Arroyo Grande has a bye next week then returns to action Friday night, October 5 with their homecoming game against San Marcos.

Hillcrest Christian 56, VCA 6

Thomas Stoddard scored the lone Lions' touchdown in the second quarter, eventually compiling 39 yards on eight carries.

VCA trailed 30-0 after the first quarter and 50-6 at halftime. VCA faces Cuyama in its league opener at 1 p.m next Saturday.

q Sports Editor Elliott Stern can be reached at 739-2235 or by e-mail to elliottstern@santamariatimes.com.

Sept. 23, 2007