The Bulldogs were nearly deflated Friday night
By Matthew Schuler
(West Covina)- The rhetoric football coaches like to use after close defeats or narrow victories is typically phrased: “The game is never won on any one particular play or call”.
But after Glendora’s potential game winning 25-yard field goal went wide-right with less than 10-seconds to play; fans might beg to differ.
Aaron Salgado rushed for over 100 yards and two touchdowns, Chris Solomon added one more, and West Covina overcame three turnovers and a late game drive to hang on to a 20-19 victory over the visiting Glendora Tartans on Friday night at Thybers Field.
“Good teams don’t do that,” said West Covina coach Mike Maggiore. “If we don’t fix ourselves, were going to have a tough time doing anything.”
Trailing 20-13 after Salgado’s 35-yard touchdown run in the third, The Tartans put together a lengthy 19-play, 76-yard touchdown drive capped off by a four yard bulldozing run by Skyler Crall.
The well-executed drive ate up nearly 10-minutes, but the hard part was the extra point.
Glendora botched the snap on the extra point attempt and failed to tie the game only receiving six points instead of the needed seven.
“If we don’t miss that extra point, have a bad snap, a bad hold, were not in that situation at the end of the game,” said Glendora head coach Todd Quinsey. “We’ve had some problems with field goals and PAT’s, but it shouldn’t come down to a field goal in the last situation.”
West Covina responded with a drive and was looking to put Glendora away when the Tartans forced a WC fumble and recovered at their own 45.
The Tarts then followed with a 12-play drive, which set up Adam Romero for the potential game winning field goal.
But the rest is history.
Jimmy Frazier, who has done a good job filling in for Solomon, had over 100 yards rushing for Westco, but Maggoire was not satisfied either way.
“It felt like a defeat,” said Maggoire. “We gave them opportunities to win the game and we didn’t take care of what we needed to do to put them away.”
Tartan Junior quarterback Kyle Kianpour threw two touchdowns for Glendora and Connor Grady came away with a pick on defense.
Kianpour connected with Dillon Fink and Donavan Holmes on his two touchdowns.
The Bulldogs (3-1) travel to play Diamond Bar next week. Glendora (1-3) plays at home against Lynwood.
Leave a Reply