{"id":29814,"date":"2012-11-16T23:54:53","date_gmt":"2012-11-17T06:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=29814"},"modified":"2017-06-10T10:15:48","modified_gmt":"2017-06-10T17:15:48","slug":"west-covina-21-muir-19-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=29814","title":{"rendered":"West Covina Rides D Into Semis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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West Covina’s Niko Johnson had two picks to lead a solid defensive effort<\/p><\/div>\n

(West Covina) –\u00a0Niko Johnson picked off two passes\u00a0and the West Covina defense forced four turnovers overall to lead\u00a0the Bulldogs to a 21-19 win over Muir Friday night in the CIF Southeast Division Quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Muir had the\u00a0ball and a chance to move into position to kick a game winning field goal with 1:29 left in the contest but West Covina stopped the Mustangs on four straight downs with Johnson knocking down a Joshua Muema-washington pass\u00a0on fourth down.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs then took a couple of knees to run out the clock.<\/p>\n

It looked like West Covina wouldn’t\u00a0need to make\u00a0key stops late in the game\u00a0when it first got underway. On Muir’s first play from scrimmage\u00a0Johnson intercepted Muema-washington and\u00a0West Covina took over at the Muir eight yard line. Antonio “Noodles”\u00a0Hull scored on the next play and with just 16 seconds gone the Bulldogs were up 6-0 after a missed extra point.<\/p>\n

The Mustangs had to punt on their\u00a0next possession but on their third series they found their groove.\u00a0After forcing West Covina to punt deep in its own territory,\u00a0Muir took over at the West Covina 39.\u00a0The Stangs needed just five plays\u00a0to tie it up as Muema-washington found Devin Leagons over the middle for a 25 yard\u00a0touchdown.\u00a0Leagons caught the ball in stride in the endzone on a perfectly thrown pass. West Covina blocked the extra point\u00a0attempt\u00a0and it was 6-6.<\/p>\n

It was\u00a0West Covina’s turn to\u00a0turn the ball over on its next series. The Bulldogs coughed it up at midfield\u00a0and\u00a0Muir took control at the 50. The Mustangs\u00a0used six plays this time with Andreece\u00a0Brown plunging into the endzone from a yard out.\u00a0The extra point gave Muir a 13-6 lead at the half.<\/p>\n

Neither team scored in the third\u00a0but late in the quarter\u00a0Johnson\u00a0again thwarted a Muir drive by stepping in front of a Muema-washington pass.\u00a0West Covina set up shop at its own 48 and was on the move as the fourth quarter began. The Bulldogs began to pound Aaron Salgado.\u00a0He had a 14-yard run to highlight a\u00a0ten-play drive and then finished it with a two yard touchdown run. Salgado also rammed\u00a0in on the two point conversion for a 14-13 lead early in the fourth.<\/p>\n

The Bulldog defense rose up again Muir’s next series.\u00a0David Ford made\u00a0a \u00a0leaping\u00a0grab of a Muema-washington toss for\u00a0WestCo’s third pick of the night. Quarterback Henry Tarin, playing for the injured Jon Najera, hit Sidney Jones down the\u00a0near sideline. Jones caught the pass and carried a couple of\u00a0Muir defenders with him for a 53-yard catch and carry down to the Muir ten yard line. Salgado did the rest\u00a0busting in for a four yard touchdown run.<\/p>\n

With 6:53 left and an eight point lead, West Covina seemed\u00a0to be in good shape.\u00a0But that all changed on the ensuing kick off.\u00a0Brown fielded it,\u00a0swerved\u00a0through West Covina traffic and by the time the Bulldogs caught up with him,\u00a0he had raced 92 yards down to the five. Three plays later it was Brown again\u00a0from three yards getting outside and hitting the corner for a touchdown.\u00a0The Mustangs went for two but muema-Washington was stopped cold at the goal\u00a0line and West Covina\u00a0was clinging to a 21-19 lead.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs faced a crucial fourth and\u00a0two with less than four minutes remaining\u00a0at their own 28 on the next series. West Covina Coach Mike Maggiore rolled the dice, Hull gained four yards on the carry for a first down and West Covina burned more time off the clock.\u00a0West Covina\u00a0did have to have to kick it away after three more plays but\u00a0by the time Muir got the ball back there was only\u00a01:29 left.<\/p>\n

The Mustangs went four\u00a0and out\u00a0with Johnson fittingly making the final play\u00a0and West Covina’s quest for a third staight title was still alive.<\/p>\n

Salgado rushed for 70\u00a0hard earned yards and\u00a0two scores on 17 carries. Hull had 127\u00a0yards on 28 carries.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs\u00a0now move into the semi finals for a\u00a0rematch\u00a0of last year’s CIF Finals with La Serna\u00a0at Cal High. La Serna knocked off\u00a0Dominguez 29-13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(West Covina) –\u00a0Niko Johnson picked off two passes\u00a0and the West Covina defense forced four turnovers overall to lead\u00a0the Bulldogs to a 21-19 win over Muir Friday night in the CIF Southeast Division Quarterfinals.<\/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":[12816],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hsfootball"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29814","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=29814"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29856,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29814\/revisions\/29856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}