Broken play breaks Royals’ hearts against Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills running back Frank Brown ran for three touchdowns as the Normans blanked the San Marcos Royals 36-0 in a non-league football game at Valley Stadium on Thursday night.

The Royals’ undersized defensive line yielded 141 yards on 24 attempts to the speedy back. On average, Beverly Hills linemen boasted a 20-pound advantage.

“Once we settled down on offense, the running game started to open up the passing game,” Normans head coach Donald Paysinger said.

Beverly Hills used a two-pronged running attack of Brown and Jordan Alleyne, who racked up 81 yards and a touchdown on eight carries. This allowed quarterback Josh Newman to test San Marcos’ man-to-man coverage. He threw for 136 yards on 12 of 22 attempts.

San Marcos quarterback Andrew Griffin hands off to Mo Cruz while Beverly Hills' Julian Jackson (32) defends.

Both offenses sputtered until the momentum shifted in the Normans’ favor midway through the second quarter. They advanced the ball to just outside the red zone, where they faced a fourth-and-four. Newman fumbled the snap, but corralled it quickly enough to hand it off to Brown, who broke a 23-yard touchdown run.

San Marcos head coach Jeff Hesselmeyer called the play a “back-breaker.”

“It was pretty demoralizing,” he said. “A lot of kids did try to compete, but it was a little deflating when we tried to make some big plays on defense and one got away.”

Beverly Hills never looked back. It ended the first half on a 69-yard drive that was capped off by a three-yard Brown touchdown run. After another Brown touchdown in the third quarter, Alleyne booked a 44-yard run of his own to end the quarter, extending the score to 29-0.

San Marcos could never get its offense rolling. Quarterbacks Andrew Griffin and Gabe Loza filled in for injured Joe Rivera. Rivera hurt his shoulder near the end of the Rio Mesa game last week; Hesselmeyer said it is likely he will return next week, pending doctor approval.

The Royals accumulated a mere 84 total yards, five first downs and surrendered two interceptions.

But Hesselmeyer said Griffin made good throws.

“We need to do a much better job holding on to it, I think we had five or six drops,” he said.

Beverly Hills advanced to 2-0 while San Marcos fell to 0-3 after its third straight home loss. San Marcos travels to Hueneme next Friday.
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