By Johnathan Saller
(Temple City) – Alhambra started slow but finished with a flurry scoring 27 of its 33 points in the second half in a 33-13 win over Temple City at North Field Thursday night.
Temple City took a 7-6 lead into the half when Rams signal caller Mikal Quintanilla rolled to his left, buying time to find receiver Anthony Valencia alone in the seam for a 56-yard scoring strike.
“We had a bad week of practice and the first half was an extension of that bad week,” Moors head coach Lou Torres said. “We looked deep inside us [at halftime] and we came out and played and don’t get me wrong, Temple City had a lot to do with it.”
On the second play of the third quarter, running back Ezra Broadus sparked the Alhambra offense with a 55-yard trot to paydirt putting the Moors up 12-7 following a second failed extra point.
“It was real tough up front and it was difficult to run all of our run-game, we had to exploit them a little bit on the outside,” Torres said.
Moors quarterback Joshua Mendoza had a huge game, throwing for 225-yards and three scores on 17 of 25 passing. His first touchdown pass went to receiver Demetrius Russell on a fade for ten yards with 4:26 left in the third.
“I think it was there,” Torres said on the Moors passing attack. “They were bent on stopping the run game which is what we do best but a lot of teams are going to realize that we do throw the ball well.”
On the Rams ensuing drive, back to back bad snaps led to a fumble in TC territory that was recovered by Moors Linebacker Nathan Quinones. The turnover culminated in another Mendoza to Russell score, this one for fifteen yards, putting Alhambra up 26-7 late in the third.
“That’s a new thing, we haven’t had any problems with that,” Rams head coach Mike McFarland said on the center-quarterback exchange. “There was one that was bobbled, there was one that was missed and there was one that was a miscommunication on the count. So, we’ve got to work on it, we’ve got to get better. We can’t make mistakes against good football teams.”
The Moors got major contributions in its running attack from Broadus, eight rushes for 75-yards with two scores and Oscar Gayton, six rushes for 55-yards. Alhambra racked up 204-yards on 28 carries on the ground. Coupled with Mendoza’s big night the Moors balanced offense gained 429-yards.
“We’re only three games in, we’ve shown a lot but we’ve also got a lot to prove and hopefully we can convince a few people how good we are,” Mendoza said.
Next week Alhambra (3-0) hosts Wilson and Temple City (0-2) travels to Arcadia for the annual Brawl for the Mall.
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