Ventura’s Roan Moran picks up a big gain on Friday.
By the time Dos Pueblos started to get going on Friday night against Ventura, the damage had already been done. The Chargers outscored the Cougars in the second half but Ventura’s big first half had already put them out of reach in a 48-28 decision.
Ventura scored the game’s first 35 points on its way to improving to 3-0 in the league standings. Coupled with Buena’s 34-7 victory over San Marcos, the Cougars and Bulldogs will play a league championship game next Friday. Dos Pueblos’ season is over because of the bye week falling in Week 10.
“I was proud of the way our guys came and played physical football. We knew that DP has shown themselves to be a pretty physical football team and we wanted to rise up to that,” said Ventura head coach Tim Garcia.
Ventura’s offense found the end zone five time in the first half and the defense didn’t give the Chargers any room to operate. Dos Pueblos couldn’t sustain an offensive possession past a few plays until late in the first half.
“We weren’t helping our D out by extending drives,” said Chargers head coach Nate Mendoza.
The Chargers finally got on the board when Kellen Roberts plunged into the end zone from two yards out with 21 seconds before halftime. Dos Pueblos cut the lead to 35-14 at the beginning of the second half when Manny Nwosu took off for a 61-yard touchdown run on the second play.
Dos Pueblos’ defense came up with a stop on Ventura’s next possession but the Cougars took advantage of a muffed punt to gain great field advantage. A few plays later, Roan Moran raced in from 25 yards out to make it 41-14. Ventura used another break on special teams, a blocked punt, to score again and push the lead to 48-14 with 4:06 to go in the third quarter.
Nwosu and Irvin Miguel scored fourth-quarter touchdowns for the Chargers, who finish their season with an overall record of 3-7. Mendoza said he was proud of this year’s team for how they coped with injuries to many of their top players.
“(I’ll remember them) being mentally tough,” Mendoza said. “This team went through some extreme hardships, losing Austen Pearce, losing Josh Flora, losing one of our true leaders on the team Alejandro Manilla, our starting corner, so those are some real tough injuries to fight through.”
