By Alex A. Gonzalez
(Arcadia) – In the 37th meeting of “Brawl for the Mall” Arcadia made it look easy in the Crest League opener behind Freddy Bysshe’s four-touchdown performance in a 40-7 blow out of the Temple City Rams in front of their Homecoming crowd.
“It feels good,” commented Bysshe after the game. “We definitely have a lot of things to work on, though. But we did get the win.”
Although Arcadia coughed up the ball twice in the first quarter, they cleaned up their mistakes and jumped out to a 12-0 lead within the first 10 minutes of play. Ethan Drew Long was the first to light up the scoreboard after his seven-yard TD run. Then at the 3:12 mark, Bysshe launched a 59-yard pass to Aiden Reyes, who then took it to the house for six.
The Rams then finally responded midway through the second quarter after Jacob Pardes’ pass to Tristan Powell went for 56 yards, setting up the offense at the Arcadia 5-yardline. Two plays later, Oliver Mao punched in his rushing touchdown from six yards out.
Unfortunately, Mao’s score was the only points the Rams were able to muster.
Arcadia then went back-to-back on scoring drives behind Bysshe’s two touchdown passes. First, his 17-yard pass to Ayden Reyes in the corner of the endzone made it a 20-7 game, then for the second time of the night, Reyes hauled in his second TD pass from a yard out, helping his team balloon their lead to 28-7 before the halftime festivities.
“Honestly, that’s my boy. Like we have been working all off season,” Said Bysshe when talking about his chemistry with Reyes. “We’ve been creating that connection through seven-on-seven, through scrimmages, and before the games. We just showed out tonight.”
Arcadia’s offense then slowed down in the final 24 minutes but still managed to add two more scores before the running clock started in the final frame.
With less than seven minutes to play in the third quarter, Long punched in his second score of the night when his ninth carry reached paydirt for the second time. He finished the game with 36 yards rushing and three total touchdowns.
Then just before the quarter ended, Long’s third score came through the air when Bysshe’s pitch pass to the right helped the running back walk into the end zone, extending the lead to 40-7. Bysshe finished the night with 316 yards passing on 21-of-27 attempts.
In 1955, Arcadia and Temple City started their cross-town rivalry with Arcadia winning the first matchup 14-6. Then, when the 2008 season started, the name Brawl for the Mall was coined when the two teams revisited their matchup after a four-year gap.
With the win, Arcadia starts league play 1-0 and will look to make it back-to-back wins next Friday when they host Arroyo. Temple City will look to bounce back on October 9th when it hosts Mark Keppel.
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