Barnfather burns Royals in home opener

Even though San Marcos was down to its No. 3 running back, the Royals’ rushing attack didn’t miss a beat in their home opener against Hueneme.

The passing game, however, remains a work in progress.

The lack off a balanced offense combined with Hueneme’s ability to move the ball through the air resulted in the Royals suffering a 21-10 nonleague loss Friday night at Valley Stadium.

ROYALS FOOTBALL TEAM PAGE ** PHOTO GALLERY

Hueneme quarterback Jonathan Barnfather burned San Marcos for 301 yards and two touchdowns. He completed 24 of 36 passes with no interceptions, although the Royals had a couple of prime pick-off opportunities  but they couldn’t hang onto the ball.

San Marcos’ aerial game, meanwhile, sputtered. The Royals (1-2) completed just five passes in 20 attempts and had two intercepted.

“We’re just off a little bit there,” San Marcos coach Jeff Hesselmeyer said. “We had a chance at a couple of big plays. We just need to find a way to put that together to take a little pressure off our running game.”

Dillon Keefer was the workhorse in the San Marcos backfield. He finished with 156 yards on 26 carries. Seventy-three of those yards came on the third play from scrimmage. On a third-and-12 from the 28, Keefer busted through the line on a draw play and ran to the end zone untouched.

Keefer was filling in for Kyle Miller, who was sidelined with a bruised chest suffered in last week’s win at Lompoc. Miller had replaced Cody Clark, who hurt his knee in the season opener at Rio Mesa.

“He stepped right in there and played hard just like we knew he would,” Hesselmeyer said of Keefer. “All our running backs practice hard and we have confidence in all of them. We know they’ll step up there and do the job.  That’s three weeks in a row we’ve had a guy step in there and fill in for the guy ahead of him and do a great job.”

That’s also a credit to the offensive line, which on Friday was up against a bigger Hueneme defensive front.

But the Royals couldn’t offset Keefer’s running with a productive passing game.

“If we can put the passing game together with the running game, we’ll be OK,” said Hesselmeyer.

Hueneme, on the other hand, showed that it could effectively move the ball through the air after the Royals did a good job containing its running attack.

“They gave us all we could handle against the run,” said Hueneme coach Joe Martinez. “Fortunately, when something goes down we’re able to pick up with another aspect of our offense. We have the personnel to be able to to that with Barnfather and our receivers.”

Led by Taylor Gonzales,Louie Giroux and Manny Hernandez, the Royals corralled Hueneme’s Tashaun Nixon, who ran wild for 298 yards last week. He was held to 47 yards on 13 carries.

“We kind of figured they’d key on Nixon — but really it’s kind of a pick your poison kind of thing,” said Martinez.  “We knew they may load up on Nixon because he had such a big week last week, so we figured we’d have a little leeway throwing the ball this week. We’re fortunate to have good enough kids to do that.”

Hueneme was forced to punt on its first two possessions, but the Royals couldn’t muster a sustained drive and punted the ball back.

Barnfather then got his arm cranked up on the next series. Starting at the 17-yard line, he hit Ewald on completions of 19

Hueneme quarterback Jonathan Barnfather

and 18 yards. He came back from a sack and found Donald Espinosa on a 34-yard play and then hit Ewald for 11 yards and Leonard Baker for the final six yards and the tying touchdown with 1:08 to go in the first quarter.

“He’s an accurate passer when he has the time, which he did,” said Hesselmeyer, “ and they run good patterns. They managed to find the open spots, threw it well and caught it. They executed very well.”

Ewald led the Vikings with seven catches for 115 yards.

Hueneme would take the lead for good in the second quarter on a 14-yard pass from Barnfather to Ewald. Osvaldo Valladolid kicked the PAT for a 14-7 advantage.

San Marcos quarterback James Crook completed a 63-yard bomb to Justin Duran to set up a 34-yard field goal by Erik Gutierrez with 1:12 left in the half.

The Royals then created a chance to score again in the final 40 seconds as Giroux sacked Barnfather and forced a fumble that was recovered by Gonzalez at the Hueneme 33.

But three passes fell incomplete and  the opportunity was wasted, leaving San Marcos behind 14-10 at the half.

Nixon broke through a weary San Marcos defense for a 13-yard TD run with 5:59 left in the third quarter to complete the scoring.

HUENEME 21, SAN MARCOS 10

Hueneme    7    7   7  0—21

San Marcos    7    3    0    0—10

FIRST QUARTER

SM — Keefer 72 run (Gutierrez kick), 11:06

H — Baker 6 pass from Barnfather (Valladolid kick), 1:08

SECOND QUARTER

H — Ewald 14 pass from Barnfather (Valladolid kick), 3:18.

SM — FG 34, Gutierrez

THIRD QUARTER

H — Nixon 13 run,  (Valladolid kick), 5:59.

TEAM TOTALS   H    SM

First downs    17    11

Rushes-yards    21-48    38-159

Passing yards    301    105

Comp-Att-Int    24-36-0    5-20-2

Sacked-yards lost    3-9    3-18

Punts-avg.    5-31.0    5-40.6

Fumbles-lost    3-2    0-0

Penalties-yards    7-50    3-30

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Hueneme: Nixon 13-47, Barnfather 4 (minus 9), Bradley 3-11, Espinosa 1 (minus 1). San Marcos: Keefer 26-156, Cruz 5-15, M. Hernandez 1 (minus 2), Crook 6 (minus 10).

PASSING — Hueneme: Barnfather 24-36-0, 301. Home: Crook 5-19-1, 105. Rivera 0-1-1, 0.

RECEIVING — Hueneme: Ewald 7-115, Espinosa 4-68, Baker 5-59 Lopez 4-20,  Nixon 4-29. Home: Duran 2-84, M. Hernandez 1-6, Patolo 1-3, Gibson 1-12.

MISSED FIELD GOALS — None

TEAM RECORDS — Hueneme 4-0-0, San Marcos 1-3-0