{"id":20374,"date":"2011-11-18T18:57:49","date_gmt":"2011-11-19T01:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=20374"},"modified":"2011-11-19T10:38:33","modified_gmt":"2011-11-19T17:38:33","slug":"maranatha-at-san-gabriel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=20374","title":{"rendered":"Matadors Get Defensive, 9-0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"\"<\/a>

The Matadors' Defense: These guys were the difference <\/p><\/div>\n

(San Gabriel)- All week the talk was that it would be a shootout. The winner would be the team with the last possession. Then over-under would be somewhere around 80. But instead it was the defense that stole the show as San Gabriel shut out Maranatha 9-0 Friday night in the first round of the CIF Mid-Valley Division playoffs.<\/p>\n

San Gabriel held Andrew Elffers, Maranatha\u2019s high powered quarterback to just 73 yards passing on 9 of 19 completions. The Matadors also intercepted him twice. Darien McGee caught just three passes for 31 yards and Cliff Martin caught three for six yards.<\/p>\n

The Minutemen advanced into the red zone only one time all night and that ended in a missed 40 yard field goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were tremendous. Our kids were hearing all week how they didn\u2019t really stand a chance in this game and I think they got tired of hearing it,\u201d said San Gabriel Coach Jude Oliva. \u201cThey really responded tonight. They believed they could do it and they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a scoreless first quarter, The Matadors finally got on the board on a 44 yard field goal by David Rivera with 34 seconds left in the first half for a 3-0 lead. Alex Villalobos intercepted Elffers as time ran out on the first half clock.<\/p>\n

San Gabriel punted on its first two possessions of the second half and Maranatha was stymied as well. Then the Matador defense made a play. Eric Alvarez, who is also the back up quarterback, picked off Elffers on third down and returned it down to the Minutemen 33. From there Andy Guerrero went to work and led the way down to the three yard line. He capped the march with a three yard run to increase the lead to 9-0 after a missed extra point. With 7:36 left in the contest that was all SG needed.<\/p>\n

Maranatha got the ball back one more time but was forced to punt again and the Matadors then ran out the clock.<\/p>\n

San Gabriel did enough offensively to get the job done. Guerrero threw for 96 yards and ran for 82 and a touchdown. Isai Fernandez caught three balls for 40 yards.<\/p>\n

But it was the defense that was the story. Alvarez and Villalobos picked off passes. Carlos Purser, Andres Jiminez and McKenzie Ferro put pressure on Elffers and stuffed the run. Hunter Garcia and Jasper Hernandez made big plays. If it wasn\u2019t one guy it was another.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir defense really played well. We saw them on\u00a0film and that\u2019s the best they played all year,\u201d said Maranatha Coach Pete Karavedas. \u201cThat was the X factor. They kept us out of the end zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minutemen had eight possessions and they punted five times, missed a field goal and turned the ball over twice.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we have had the reputation of being soft,\u201d Oliva told his team after the game. \u201cYou guys put that to rest tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Gabriel travels to Arroyo to take on the Knights next week in round two.<\/p>\n

M \u00a0\u00a00 \u00a00 \u00a00 \u00a00 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a00<\/p>\n

SG 0 \u00a03 \u00a00 \u00a06 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a09<\/p>\n

2nd<\/sup> Qtr:<\/p>\n

SG :34 Rivera 44 yd FG<\/p>\n

4th<\/sup> Qtr:<\/p>\n

SG 7:36 Guerrero 3 yd run (Kick Failed)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(San Gabriel)- All week the talk was that it would be a shootout. The winner would be the team with the last possession. Then over-under would be somewhere around 80. But instead it was the defense that stole the show as San Gabriel shut out Maranatha 9-0 Friday night in the first round of the […]<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-20374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-school-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20374","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=20374"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20469,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20374\/revisions\/20469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}