By Ron Vrooman <\/p>\n\n\n\n
(San Gabriel) – The inability to run the ball, combined with crucial defensive lapses and a special-teams gaffe, spelled defeat for the visiting Alhambra Moors as they fell to the San Gabriel Matadors, 20-14, on Thursday night.<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
The key player in the Matadors’ victory was slot receiver Aaron Rojas, who caught five passes from quarterback Raul De Jesus for 68 yards and two touchdowns. Rojas also came dangerously close to costing his team the win, but he ultimately made the game-saving play on defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
San Gabriel scored first on a 43-yard touchdown run by Derrick Liang, who took the ball on a sweep to the right, broke a tackle as he rounded the corner, and raced all the way down the sideline. The Matadors’ lead remained at 6-0 when Anthony German missed the extra-point attempt with 6:48 left in the opening quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Moors then drove 54 yards in seven plays, tying the game on Josh Calderon’s quarterback sneak. Alex Zuniga kicked the extra point to give Alhambra a 7-6 lead which lasted until shortly before halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Moors missed a chance to score again when they failed to move the ball after taking over on downs at the San Gabriel 42 early in the second quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Matadors regained the lead with a 60-yard drive just before the break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On 2nd-and-4 at the Moors’ 29-yard line, De Jesus threw a bomb to Rojas, who caught the ball between two Alhambra defenders for a touchdown with 47 seconds left in the second quarter. Rojas was then stopped when he tried to run for a two-point conversion, but the Matadors still led, 12-7, at halftime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With the score still 12-7 late in the third quarter, the Moors committed a blunder which contributed heavily to their downfall. On 4th-and-14 at the Alhambra 41, Edward Escalante, who was lined up as a blocker in punt formation, took a direct snap from center and attempted to run for the first down. He was met at the line of scrimmage by several defenders who forced a fumble that the Matadors recovered at the Moors’ 39-yard line.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Four plays later, De Jesus fired a 24-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Rojas, who followed with a run for a two-point conversion to put San Gabriel ahead, 20-7, with 34 seconds remaining in the quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Matadors, going for the kill, then tried an onside kick, but the Moors got possession at their opponents’ 47-yard line after the ball was touched prematurely by a San Gabriel player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Alhambra turned the ball over on downs at the San Gabriel 39 on the first play of the final quarter. The Moors’ defense pushed the Matadors back to the 30-yard line, and San Gabriel was forced to punt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking over at their own 37, the Moors drove 63 yards, with Calderon throwing an eight-yard scoring pass to tight end Jefferson Clay on 4th-and-3. Zuniga hit the extra point, cutting the Matadors’ lead to 20-14 with 4:28 left in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the ensuing kickoff, Zuniga booted the ball toward Rojas, who was ready to field it at the Matadors’ 15. The ball skipped past him and bounced to the eight-yard line, where he attempted to pick it up. Rojas was able to retrieve the ball on his second try, but he fumbled an instant later when he was hit by the Moors’ Zack Chacon.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The loose ball was scooped up by Alhambra’s Nathan Rabadan, who carried it into the Matadors’ end zone, but the officials called the play dead at the San Gabriel 8. Their ruling was that the kick had been muffed by Rojas, and that the Moors could not advance the ball from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On 1st-and-goal for Alhambra, running back Chris Aguilar gained five yards down to the Matadors’ 3. However, on the next play, Aguilar fumbled a pitch from Calderon and had to fall on the ball for a one-yard loss. On third down, Rabadan was tackled for a two-yard loss when he tried to go around the right side.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On 4th-and-goal from the San Gabriel 6, Calderon threw a pass into the end zone which was intended for tight end Derek Aston. Rojas, who was in as a defensive back for the Matadors, swooped in to knock the ball away, and the Matadors took over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
San Gabriel got a first down and proceeded to run out the clock to preserve its seventh straight victory over Alhambra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
De Jesus completed 12 of 17 passes for 135 yards, and six San Gabriel ballcarriers combined to rush for 132 yards. For Alhambra, Calderon connected on 14 of 31 throws for 152 yards, but the Moors netted only 18 yards on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The victory gave the Matadors a record of 1-1\u00a0in the Alliance League and an overall mark of 4-4, while the Moors dropped to 1-1 in league and 5-4 overall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Matadors will qualify for the playoffs if they can win their league finale at South El Monte, and the Moors can do likewise by prevailing at Montebello. Both games are scheduled for this Friday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Ron Vrooman (San Gabriel) – The inability to run the ball, combined with crucial defensive lapses and a special-teams gaffe, spelled defeat for the visiting Alhambra Moors as they fell to the San Gabriel Matadors, 20-14, on Thursday night.<\/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":[12816,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hsfootball","category-high-school-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99878,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99877\/revisions\/99878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}