Aguilera leads rally on coach's special day
NORWALK ❯❯ The La Mirada football team was prepared to be without head coach Lucas Mealy for its Gateway League opener Thursday against Dominguez.
Mealy started the day at the hospital, expecting the birth of his second child.
At 5:15 p.m., Mealy witnessed the birth of his son, Landon Mathew Mealy. The coach then got into his car, changed clothes, and arrived at Norwalk High School about 25 minutes before the 7 p.m. kickoff.
By the end of the night, Matadores running back/ defensive back Martin Aguilera made an already special night for Mealy twice as memorable.
Aguilera ran for a 65yard touchdown and returned a fumble 75 yards for the winning score as part of a 21-point fourthquarter rally to ignite La Mirada past Dominguez 21-14.
“I got to hold my son, took care of some of the paperwork and then I headed on over here,” Mealy said.
“(Aguilera) is a stud,” Mealy added. “He's a senior, he works his tail off day in and day out. That young man bleeds blue and gold and he gives it his all.”
Tied 14-14 and with the Dons (5-1, 0-1) driving, Aguilera quickly scooped up a loose ball at the La Mirada 25-yard line and was a blur down the left sideline to give the Matadores (2-4, 1-0) their first lead with 29 seconds to play.
Aguilera said he had just one thought as he sprinted past the La Mirada bench: “Don't get caught.”
“I'm exhausted,” Aguilera said. “I just didn't want to get caught because there's a few guys on that team that are really fast. I just had to make a play.”
La Mirada trailed 7-0 going into the fourth, with its offense limited on the ground and quarterback Santino Garcia struggling with three interceptions.
With 7:56 left, though, Garcia found receiver Max Rankin for a 16-yard TD to tie the game.
Two minutes later, a costly Matadores defensive penalty on third down opened the door for Dons quarterback Mikaele FituAhkui to score on an 8-yard keeper to pull in front 14-7.
Mealy then chose to stick with the run, and Aguilera responded on the very next drive with a quick burst up the middle.
“I just saw the little crease that I had,” Aguilera said. “To be honest, (Dominguez) was doing really good in the box. Once I saw that crease I had to just go.”
Added Dominguez coach Deon Toliver: “He slipped through and he wanted to win more than we wanted to win. I guess it's what it was.”
The Dons were unable to ride their defense, which produced two interceptions from defensive back Timmy Tuiagamoa, another from Skyedann Bobo-Gunther and sacks from linebacker Kaleb McCutcheon and defensive end Peaire Alexander.
Toliver said it was a matter of La Mirada “finishing out the game better than we did.”
“We didn't have the finish in us that we had last week,” Toliver said, alluding to a 36-33 win over Narbonne on Sept. 22.
“We put ourselves in a situation where they had a chance to beat us and they beat us.”
Both teams came into the meeting with a combined 78 points between the two offenses in their last respective games.
The defenses — and some missed opportunities in the red zone — quickly set the tone, though.
The Matadores' best opportunity in the first half was on their opening drive.
Instead of opting for the field-goal attempt, La Mirada turned it over on downs on fourth-and-4 from the Dominguez 9.
The Dons didn't fare much better for the majority of the half, turning it over on downs three times. It was the first time they scored fewer than 34 points this season.
“We couldn't sustain a drive,” Toliver said. “We had it going a little bit but we couldn't finish drives off.”
But a bad bounce on a poor punt attempt deep in its own territory that returned to the line of scrimmage cost La Mirada dearly with 4:22 left in the half.
After taking over on the La Mirada 11, Dominguez got on the board two plays later as McCutcheon's 11yard TD run accounted for the lone score and the 7-0 lead at halftime.
La Mirada will play rival Mayfair at Glenn High on Friday and Dominguez will play host to Downey.