{"id":18492,"date":"2011-09-23T23:42:10","date_gmt":"2011-09-24T06:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=18492"},"modified":"2011-09-24T17:55:05","modified_gmt":"2011-09-25T00:55:05","slug":"maranatha-38-salesian-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=18492","title":{"rendered":"McGee Money for Minutemen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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QB Andrew Elffers of the undefeated Minutemen has reason to smile <\/p><\/div>\n

By Rick Fruchey\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Pasadena)- Rapidly becoming the standard for Maranatha-Salesian match ups are white knuckles, shortness of breath, a skipped heart beat (or two), and a tsunami of adrenaline.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not for a CIF title, its not a playoff game, battling for a playoff birth, a league rivalry, or a geographic connection that has made this game memorable the last two years. It\u2019s Maranatha versus Salesian, Mustangs versus Minutemen, enough said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it was the 2011 super nova named Darien McGee who returned a fourth quarter kick-off 98-yards to give Maranatha a 38-35 victory over Salesian on Friday night.<\/p>\n

With 3:20 to play Salesian fullback Jamadre Cobb scored on a 2-yard run to give the Mustangs a 35-31 lead following the extra-point.<\/p>\n

Score flattened a home crowd that saw the Minutemen build a 23-6 lead in the first half and brought reminders of their team\u2019s comeback at Salesian in 2010.<\/p>\n

Then came McGee, running with the night, who went 98-yards on the ensuing kick-off for the game winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud of my boys,\u201d said Maranatha HC Pete Karavedas. \u201cIt was tough but they played through adversity.\u201d The victory moved the Minutemen to 4-0, while the Mustangs dropped to 3-1.<\/p>\n

Salesian scored first going 76 yards on 9-plays before running back Christian Vega scored on a 14-yard run. The extra point was missed and the rest of the half belonged to \u2018Natha.<\/p>\n

Late in the first Andrew Elffers hit Matt Hall with a 4-yard touchdown pass to make it 7-6.<\/p>\n

Early in the second as the Salesian offense was beginning to struggle a snap on a punt sailed out of the end zone for a safety to make it 9-6. All told in the first half the Mustangs would account for only 90 yards of total offense, 76 coming on the game\u2019s first series.<\/p>\n

With 7:42 to play in the half Elffers hit tight end Robert Flewelling for a 5-yard score and four minutes later Omar Younger hit paydirt on a 33-yard run to make it 23-6 at the break.<\/p>\n

The Mustangs put it together in the third as Vega scored early on a 4-yard run to close the gap to 23-14 following the two-point conversion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then with 9 seconds remaining in the third Salesian\u2019s Luke Urista returned a punt 42-yards for a touchdown and it was a 23-21 contest.<\/p>\n

Minutes later Jihad Vercher went 44-yards to Keishawn Roe and the Mustangs had a 28-23 lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy defensive backs were struggling against their receivers,\u201d said Karavedas. \u201cThey had an advantage in talent and height.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 7:43 to play Elffers brought his team back scoring first on a 3-yard run and then adding the deuce to put Maranatha back on top 31-28.<\/p>\n

Undeterred the Mustangs went back to work and retook the lead on Cobb\u2019s scoring which set up McGee\u2019s heroics.<\/p>\n

Elffers finished with 14 completions for 146 yards and two touchdown, while Vercher completed 12 for 207 yards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rick Fruchey\u00a0 (Pasadena)- Rapidly becoming the standard for Maranatha-Salesian match ups are white knuckles, shortness of breath, a skipped heart beat (or two), and a tsunami of adrenaline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3827,6194,5702,6191,6192,6193,5070,6190],"class_list":["post-18492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-andrew-elffers","tag-christian-vega","tag-darien-mcgee","tag-jamadre-cobb","tag-jihad-vercher","tag-keishawn-roe","tag-maranatha-minutemen","tag-salesian-mustangs"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18492"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18578,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18492\/revisions\/18578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}