By Matt Schuler
(La Puente)- A new season, new faces, yet the defending league champions are looking dominant once again.
Last year’s Montview League title holder Azusa rushed for over 350 yards on the ground and used La Puente as a door mat, walking all over the Warriors 50-21 Friday night.
Azusa running back Kendrec McDade carried the ball 33 times for 190 yards and two touchdowns.
McDade kicked off the opening drive with six consecutive carries and capped off the 6-play, 67 yard drive on a two yard toss-play to open up a 7-0 lead after two and a half minutes of play.
“We knew we had to score first,” said Aztec Coach Joe Scherf. “We hadn’t shown anything like that in any film so we decided to try that.”
It worked.
Alternate running back Steven Blount also accounted for two touchdowns on the ground and rushed for 152 yards on only 10 carries for Azusa.
Blount scored on touchdown runs of 57 and 24, providing a homerun threat with his breakaway speed.
The Warriors, coming off a 62-3 win over Duarte, were looking like the team to challenge Azusa in the title hunt, but were overwhelmed and outplayed by the Aztecs in every facet of the game.
Quarter back for La Puente, Garrett Hrey, completed only 4 of 9 passes, three of which went for touchdowns. Hrey finished with 95 yards, connecting on touchdown passes of 53, 44 and 35 yards to 3 different receivers. Senior receivers James Fernandez, Giovanni Rosales and Eduardo Venegas came up with big play touchdown grabs for LP.
Fernandez 44 yard touchdown catch from Hrey gave Puente a breath of life and kept it close at 14-7 going into half time. It was only 7-0 at the end of one.
It was the second half where Azusa opened the gap and ran away.
The Aztecs ground game carried the team, but the Azusa’s defense accounted for 16 of the 50 points put on the scoreboard.
“They out played us tonight,” said Warriors coach Brandon Rohrer. “They out hit us, they were just more physical than us. It was just one of those nights.”
With 2:32 remaining in the third, Azusa’s Abraham Ochoa scored when he picked up a blocked punt by teammate Daniel Velasquez and took it to 35 yards to the house to push the lead to 29-7.
La Puente responded to start the fourth when Hrey found Rosales, who made a spectacular jumping catch over the defense, for his second touchdown toss to bring the score 29-14, but It was all LP from there.
The Aztecs defense forced a safety, returned a block punt for a touchdown and defensive back Desmond Reed picked off Hrey and took it 25 yards to cap off the scoring for Azusa.
The Aztecs, now 5-1 overall and 2-0 in league, are averaging 31 points a game and looking to keep it rolling next week against Sierra Vista. La Puente, 1-1, 4-2 overall, plays Workman.
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