Arroyo's Andre Kerkhoff did a little bit of everything on Thursday KNIGHT: Catches, tackles, touchdown, and a pick.
(El Monte) – Arroyo’s Steven Rivera threw four touchdown passes and ran for another to lead the Knights to a 35-20 victory over El Monte Thursday night at B.L. Bergstrom Stadium.
The victory secured Knights third straight Mission Valley League crown and won its with 21st consecutive match up with El Monte.
The MVL champs finished the regular season 9-1(5-0), while El Monte took second with a 7-3 (4-1) record.
As always the key factor was Rivera. The senior quarterback finished 31 of 43 for 366 yards to go with his four touchdowns. The touchdown passes give him 32 on the season, a new Arroyo record, and 88 in his career.
The first score of the game, however, came when the Lions stripped Rivera of the ball on the Knights first offensive series. EM’s Adam Campos recovered the ball at the Arroyo 25.
Two plays later Brandon Martinez connected with slot receiver Abel Barrajas on a 26-yard pass to paydirt at El Monte lead 7-0 just 53 ticks into the title bout.
The Knights next two possessions ended in three and outs, but a door opened when the Lions Bryan Luevano coughed up the ball at the end of a 10-yard run to give the ball back to the home team at the EM 35.
Facing fourth and six, Rivera found Andrew Kerkoff for 15 yards, and officials flagged the Lions for helmet to helmet contact to move the ball closer to the goal line. Two plays after that Peter Aholoka scored from 11-yards on a screen pass from Rivera.
The contest was slowed, overall, by 24 penalties hurting both teams in the process.
In the second quarter Rivera went 11-yards to Kerkhoff to make it 14-7.
Jim Singiser celebrates the Knights third straight MVL title with Brandon Jauregui (#11). In the background James Rivera (#51) & Steven Rivera (#10) confirm their feelings. ---photo by Andrew Butter www.peanutbuttersports.smugmug.com
The game turned again after El Monte was forced to punt on its next possession. The Knights took over at their own 17 and a bad snap on second down sent Rivera running towards his goal line to try and recover the ball. He was able to get a hand on it but as Lion defenders were about to corral the ball in bounce out of bounds.
“Talk about a game of inches,” said El Monte HC Joel Sanchez. “A game of inches, we would have been inside their five. That was a 14 point swing.”
Three plays later Rivera fired his third touchdown pass when he went 71-yards to Hunter Duran.
In the third Rivera dumped a screen pass off to Aholoka and the back took it 29-yards for a 28-7 lead.
The Lions briefly rallied when Martinez and Barrajas hooked up for another score from 17-yards out with 50 seconds remaining in the third, but Arroyo answered back with an 80-yard drive Rivera himself capped with a 1-yard run.
Late in the fourth quarter Martinez was knocked from the game with an ankle injury.
“It looks like a bad ankle sprain,” said Sanchez. “Hopefully he’s ready for next week would hate for him to miss his first playoff game.”
Manuel Santa Cruz, EM’s starting quarterback in 2009 & 2010, patch worked a drive complemented by three pass interference penalties and scored on a 6-yard run to close the scoring.
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