By Tim Peterson
(El Monte) – Aaron Morinaga scored twice for Arcadia including a five-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to lift the Apaches to a 13-6 win over Arroyo Friday night at B.L. Bergstrom Stadium.
The win was the first for Eric Elias as a head coach. Elias was a longtime assistant coach before taking over as head coach this year at Arcadia, his alma mater.
Both teams scored in the first quarter on their opening drives but neither team could muster any points before Morinaga plowed in from the five-yard line to cap a five-play, 51-yard drive to make it 13-6 with 6:57 left in the fourth quarter.
The Apaches then stopped Arroyo on fourth down with over three minutes left and were able to burn out the clock.
Arroyo scored first marching 82 yards on 10 plays on the opening possession. Angel Casillas finished it with a five-yard run. The Knights went for two and were stopped on a Casillas run.
Arcadia came right back on its first series driving 67 yards with Morinaga capping it with a four-yard run. The extra point was missed leaving the score tied 6-6 late in the first quarter.
The Apaches drove down to the Arroyo three-yard line in the third quarter but Morinaga was hit and coughed it up and Arroyo recovered to stop the threat.
Arroyo had only three possessions in the second half and they ended with two punts and a fourth down stop.
Morinaga picked up his second TD of the night for Arcadia and Elias picked up his first victory.
Elias was happy with his team’s defensive effort. “I know Jim (Singiser) schemes very well. I know because I used to coach with him,” Elias said of his defensive coordinator. “Also on offense our game plan was to run the ball and we were able to do that.”
Morinaga had 12 carries for 62 yards and two touchdowns Quarterback Jacobi Law ran for 53 yards on 10 carries and threw for 66 yards on 7 of 9 completions. For Arroyo Romeo Arevalo had 17 carries for 46 yards and Casillas ran for 24 yards and a touchdown on 6 carries.
The game was also the first win for Singiser as the Arcadia DC. Singiser is the former head coach at Arroyo.
Arcadia is now 1-1 with the victory while Arroyo fell to 1-2 with the defeat.
MVL EYE
trying to say lighting system is old, outdated, and CHEAP
$1.50 ?????
Arroyo
State of the art artificial turf million bucks nice
1960 lighting system (still using regular light bulbs) dollar fifty sucks
It sounds like neither team is very good from your report . Arroyo can lean on MVL ineptitude to get playoff berth; likely D14 now
Coach Elias was my son’s frosh coach and his teams would have undisciplined penalties at inopportune times. The Apaches had several personal foul late hits and hits out of bounds. Also a roughing the kicker when it was fourth and thirty. No need for that.
Arroyo’ staff needs to work on special teams, especially the kicking game and clock management. I’ve seen them twice this young season.
Sloppy game but it was a close game. I’d love to have seen this match up a decade or so ago.