Raiders Win Minus Ball

Josh Onovughe Leads Rowland Past Walnut   Photo by Aaron Seid

Josh Onovughe Leads Rowland Past Walnut Photo by Aaron Seid

(Walnut) – Michael Ball was knocked out of the game in the first quarter with a possible broken collarbone and after one Rowland found itself down 7-3. But after a pep talk from Coach Craig Snyder, big plays from Josh Onovughe and Leonardo Freeman and a stalwart defensive effort, the Raiders rolled to a 27-7 win over Walnut Friday night in the San Antonio League opener.

  Ball, the senior quarterback, was dragged down by his face mask after a long run with 7:11 left in the first quarter. He remained on the turf for nearly 20 minutes while medical personnel worked on him. He was carted off the field and taken over to the Rowland sideline where he was examined by team doctors. Later he was taken to the hospital by ambulance for x-rays and further treatment. Original indications were that it was a broken collarbone.

  “He’s at the doctors getting x-rayed right now and we just don’t know yet. We haven’t heard anything yet,” said Snyder. “The doctor said a possible collarbone break but it could just be a sprain or a bad bruise. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

  Immediately after Ball went down, Snyder gathered his troops together and exhorted them to get tough. “Let’s start putting pad on pad. Let’s get after it,” he yelled.

  The facemask penalty moved the ball to the eight yard line. The drive stalled at the five but Henry Calistro booted a 22 yard field goal for a 3-0 lead.

  Walnut bounced back and pieced together an 80 yard, 12 play drive, to go up 7-3. Austin Cooper finished it in style with a 33 yard touchdown strike to Jason Tsukada.

  A 47 yard Calistro field goal cut it to 7-6 in the second quarter and then the Raiders took advantage of a huge Mustang error.

  A bad Walnut snap out of a punt formation left Rowland deep in Mustang territory at the 24. Five plays later, Onovughe bolted into the end zone from the two yard line with 12 seconds left in the half.

  The Raiders iced it in the third on their first possession of the quarter. They drove 70 yards on six plays with Onovughe covering the final 24 yards with a scoring run. He also had runs of 14 and 20 yards to highlight the drive.

  Onovughe had 20 carries for 129 yards and two touchdowns. Freeman, who replaced Ball at quarterback, had 59 yards rushing and also completed four passes for 27 yards.

  Danny Garcia broke off a 36 yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to round out the scoring.

  The Rowland defense held Walnut to less than 100 yards rushing. Milan King had 13 carries for 90 yards. Cooper completed 10 of 29 passes for 122 yards and a touchdown.

  “That’s the beauty of football. It’s not a one man show. Michael means a lot to this team but it was up to everybody else to step up tonight,” Snyder said.

  Rowland improved to 6-0 overall and 1-0 in league. Walnut suffered its first loss after winning its first five non league contests.

 

R  3  9  8  7         27

W 7  0  0  0          7

 

Summary:
1st Qtr:

R 5:39 Calistro 22 yd FG

W :49 Isukada 33 yd pass from Cooper (Nikki McKee Kick)

2nd Qtr:

R 6:01 Calistro 47 yd FG

R :12 Onovughe 2 yd run (2 pat pass failed)

3rd Qtr:

R 9:15 Onovughe 24 yd run (Garcia run – 2 pt)

4th Qtr:

10:24 Garcia 36 yd run (Calistro Kick)

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