By Johnathan Saller
(Cerritos) – Valley Christian’s keep away offense paid dividends with a rushing attack which featured running back Jaylen Raye who rushed for 175 yards on 30 carries in the win over Maranatha at Crusaders Field Friday night.
“Our game plans was, he’s the best player in the league, [Andrew] Elfers, so we knew we had to keep him off the field as much as possible,” Crusaders head coach Erick Streelman said. “We knew we had the offensive line to control the ball, control the clock, and so that was kind of the game plan.”
Sure the offense put 26 points on the board but the most impressive unit on the field was Valley Christians defense which sacked the standout, Elfers, five times for a loss of 50 yards. The defense also forced Elfers to fumble and held him to 58-yards passing through the first three quarters.
“We were bringing one more than they could block basically all night and playing man coverage behind it,” Streelman said. “We were gamblin’, hoping that we could get to him [Elfers] before he could get to us and it worked.”
The Minutemen were clinging to an early 3-0 lead when on fourth and three Crusaders quarterback Patrick Avila found Brandon Bynum in the end zone for an eight yard touchdown to make it 6-3 following a failed extra point.
Valley Christian tacked on a 27-yard field goal late in the second quarter to take a 9-3 advantage into the break.
The second half brought more of the same, Raye pounding the rock, gassing the Maranatha defense. Running back Tyler McLurg found paydirt from two-yards out and it was 16-3 midway through the third.
Again the Minutemen went three and out and again Valley Christian answered with a score, this time a 33-yard field goal putting itself up 19-3.
It was déjà vu one more time as Maranatha went three out and the Crusaders followed with points. This time it was running back Lucas Young from 12-yards out to put his team up 26-3.
Elfers finally came alive in the fourth connecting with Robert Flewelling on a ten yard scoring strike pulling his team to 26-10. Elfers then cashed in from a yard out on the ground. He connected with Flewelling for the two point conversion and it was 26-18 with 1:21 to go.
Marantatha followed the score up with an onside kick attempt but it was unsuccessful.
Elfers’ final line on the night was 11 of 21 passing for 147 yards with a touchdown in the air and one on the ground.
After starting 6-0 suddenly the Minutemen are 0-2 in league needing two wins to make the playoffs. Next week they host Village Christian. After starting 0-5, Valley Christian (4-5) will host Whittier Christian in a game that decides the Olympic League.
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