Second-half power-outage for Trojans
EDWARDS • The Silver Valley football team was able to hang with its opponent for half the game, but slow third and fourth quarters doomed the Trojans, who lost to Desert, 22-7, last Friday night in Edwards.
It was even through the first 24 minutes. The Scorpions scored in the first quarter, but the Trojans came back to tie it up in the second. Robert Santiago caught Silver Valley’s only touchdown, from Evan Martinez, and the game was knotted at 7-7 at halftime.
The Scorpions took control in the third, reaching the end zone twice and scoring 13 points, while holding the Trojans scoreless.
“We were in a battle all through the first half. After that, they capitalized on our mistakes and we weren’t able to do the same to them,” said Trojans head coach John Stewart. “Besides our miscues, Desert is a real good team and will fight for tops in their league with Cal City. I think both schools have a good chance to make CIF.”
Anthony Vigilante scored twice for the Scorpions, with one TD for Brandon Valdez.
There were some bright spots for the Trojans. Dante Fields and Ashton Thrash provided solid defense and each had over 10 tackles, while Dan Quixchan had 93 yards rushing on 12 carries. The team is making progress, but it will take some patience, according to the coach.
“We played tough from start to finish and we are making steps in the right direction. But getting rid of old habits has been taking longer than we expected,” said Stewart. “We get a few perfectly-executed plays, on offense or defense, then we’ll have one or two players take a play off and revert to bad habits.”
The (1-3) Trojans will try to add to their win total at home this Friday when they host Desert Christian for a 7 p.m. start.
