COUGARS BLANK MOUNTAIN LIONS
Resurrection Christian scores three times in second quarter to spur victory
Resurrection Christian broke open a scoreless game with three second-quarter touchdowns and that was all the Cougars needed Thursday night at Ray Patterson Stadium.
The Cougars stuck with their game plan of running right at and through the Mountain View defense, and with their 20 second-quarter points cruised to a 28-0 victory over Mountain View.
With the win, the Class 3A No. 6 Cougars improved to 7-1 overall and 2-1 in Class 3A
League 7. Mountain View fell to 1-7 and 0-3. Resurrection Christian’s only blemish on its record remains its loss to No. 1 Roosevelt two weeks ago.
“Our offensive line kept coming to us and saying just keep pounding the ball and we’ll get it,” Resurrection Christian head coach Bob Mauck said. “Yes, it was a little bit of a slow start. However, they had all the confidence and they just said hey coach, it’s going to break open, keep doing it and it did.
“I am proud of them for responding. A win’s a win in your conference. They haven’t been pretty, but I am super proud of them because we had to get over that hump.”
Resurrection Christian threatened on its first drive, but quarterback Carter Evans threw an interception in the end zone to give the Mountain Lions the ball. As was the case for much of the game, Mountain View couldn’t do much with it.
Following a Mountain View punt, the Cougars drove to the Mountain Lions’ 1-yard line where Evans ran it in. The Cougars don’t have a kicker, so they went for two and failed. But they led 6-0 with 9:32 remaining in the second quarter.
On its next possession, Resurrection Christian scored on a long run by Hunter Hansen. The sophomore broke to the outside and ran 68 yards down the sideline for a touchdown. This time, the Cougars’ 2-point conversion pass was good and they led 14-0 with 4:40 left in the second quarter.
“The hole opened, and I made my cut,” Hansen said. “Then I was off to the races. Our line started to adapt and open up holes, which really improved our offense.”
After pouncing on a Mountain View fumble, the Cougars scored again two minutes later. Hansen ran it in from a yard out to put Resurrection Christian ahead 20-0 after another failed 2-point conversion.
Hansen was hard for the Mountain Lions to bring down all night. He had a run of more than 50 yards in the third quarter called back by a penalty and broke off several in the 10- to 15yard range.
“Hunter’s just a load,” Mauck said. “When he comes at you
with that speed, he runs with a purpose. If you are on the other side of it, you are going to feel it. He really carried the load for us tonight. It was an all-around great performance.”
The Cougars also got tough running from Grant Applebee and later Will Reeves as they wore down the Mountain Lion defense. Evans completed some timely passes and contributed to the running attack as well.
The only thing that kept the Cougars from scoring more were penalties and turnovers. Resurrection Christian was inside the Mountain View 10-yard line early in the fourth quarter but fumbled the ball at the 8.
“We had a few turnovers, which obviously we have to clean up,” Mauck said. “We’re generally really disciplined with that, we just unfortunately had a couple today so we have to get back to work on that.”
Late in the fourth quarter, the Cougars added their final touchdown on a 14yard run by Reeves.
Resurrection Christian will host No. 5 Northridge next Friday. Mountain View will play at Severance. Then the Cougars will close the regular season back at Ray Patterson against Thompson Valley. Mountain View gets top-ranked Roosevelt to end its season in two weeks.
“We’re feeling good,” Hansen said. “As long as we keep heading in the right direction, I think we’ll be good.”
Alex Bregman hit an early threerun homer, Framber Valdez pitched seven strong innings and the Houston Astros edged the New York Yankees 3-2 Thursday night to take a 2-0 lead in the AL Championship Series.
Yankees slugger Aaron Judge just missed a tworun homer in the eighth when his drive was caught just in front of the short wall by right fielder Kyle Tucker. The ball would’ve landed in the short rightfield porch at Yankee Stadium, Statcast showed — with the roof open at Minute Maid Park, the wind might’ve knocked down Judge’s bid.
A night after Justin Verlander fanned 11 in a 4-2 win in Game 1 of the bestof-seven series, Valdez turned in another solid pitching performance and Bregman’s third-inning homer was all the offense Houston needed. The Astros improved to 5-0 this postseason.
Valdez allowed just four hits, walked none and struck out nine. The only runs New York mustered were unearned, coming in the fourth after a flustered Valdez committed two errors on the same play.
But he quickly moved past the gaffe and shut down the powerful Yankees lineup the rest of the way. Valdez allowed just one baserunner after that inning on a single to Harrison Bader with two outs in the fifth and retired the last seven hitters he faced, capped by striking out the side in the seventh.
Featuring a mix of pitches, Valdez got 25 swings and misses. He also helped end the Yankees’ record run of 23 straight postseason games with a home run.
Bryan Abreu pitched a scoreless eighth. Ryan Pressly walked one in a scoreless ninth, striking out three for his second save of the series.
There was a slight delay before Pressly threw his first pitch after a fan got on the field and appeared to try and hug Astros second baseman Jose Altuve and take a selfie with him.
Security and police officers quickly descended on the man and pulled him away from Altuve before wrestling him to the ground, handcuffing him and escorting him off the field.
The series shifts to New York for Game 3 Saturday where the Yankees will try to dig themselves out of a hole to avoid being eliminated by Houston in the ALCS for the third time in six years.
Houston is 7-2 overall against the Yankees this year.
Yankees starter Luis Severino plunked Martín Maldonado on the left forearm to start Houston’s third before the slumping Altuve struck out. Jeremy Peña singled to center before Yordan Alvarez grounded into a forceout at second.
Bregman then knocked a fastball beyond the wall in left field for his second home run this postseason to make it 3-0. It was his 14th career home run in the playoffs to move him past Justin Turner for most homers by a third baseman in MLB history.
It was a bit windy at Minute Maid Park in a rare game where the retractable roof was open. Judge, who set an AL record with 62 home runs during the regular season, gave the Houston fans with his drive that Tucker grabbed before knocking into the wall.