By Thom Hendrickson
(Pasadena)—Azusa’s Cameron Blackburn broke up a tight game with a pair of third quarter touchdowns to lead the Aztecs to a 33-14 victory over the Maranatha Minutemen on Friday night.
Blackburn took over in the third quarter as he caught a 19-yard scoring pass from Joe Ledesma and then ran 47-yards for another touchdown. For the night he totaled 264 yards of offense.
After a scoreless first quarter Azusa took advantage of a poor punt at the beginning of the second. The Aztecs drove 59 yards with Angel Flores diving over from two for a 6-0 lead.
After an interception, Azusa’s Ledesma found Carlos Montiel for 40-yards and a 12-0 lead.
Maranatha finally found some offense and marched down the field, helped by three Aztec penalties, before quarterback Eli Snyder hit Darron McWhorter on a 25-yard scoring pass.
Azusa struck back quickly as Cameron Blackburn ran in from 30-yards out.
Marantha was not to be outdone as they took all of 1:05 as Snyder hit Aidan Yamada and he powered into the end zone on a 18-yard reception. After the smoke cleared Azusa led 19-14 at the half.
***Azusa’s Jose Ledesma completed 8 of 13 passes for 129 yards.
***Azusa’s Cameron Blackburn rushed 187 yards on 22 carries with 2 touchdowns and caught 4 passes for 77 yards and 1 touchdown ( 264 total yards ).
***Blackburn also lost a defensive touchdown when his 65 yard interception return was called back because of a block in the back penalty.
***Azusa’s first interception occurred when Maranatha’s quarterback Eli Snyder had his pass batted away, the ball bounced off the helmet of his teammate, Chris Ajalat, and ended up in Azusa’s Chris Duran’s hands. He returned it to the Maranatha 42 yard line.
***Azusa and Maranatha split 19 penalties. Azusa 10 for 90 yards and Maranatha 9 for 65 yards.
***Maranatha’s Eli Snyder completed 20 of 40 passes for 218 yards.
***Maranatha’s Baile McDavid rushed 75 yards on 12 carries.
***Maranatha’s Xavius Boone caught 8 passes for 76 yards and Darren McWhorter caught 7 passes for 95 yards.
***Maranatha’s only interception happened when Ledesma’s perfect pass bounced off the numbers of Raul Ramos into the waiting hands of Maranatha’s Baile McDavid.
***A great play happened when Maranatha’s Aidan Yamada caught a pass from Snyder and landed a powerful stiff arm on the Azusa defender at the 5 yard line on his way to the end zone with the Minutemen’s second score of the game.
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