Mats fall in El Toro Bowl
Arizona Western falls to Lackawanna after a late rally, finishes the season 6-5
The Arizona Western football team rallied late and had a chance to win the El Toro Bowl in the final minutes, but as is familiar this season, the team shot itself in the foot a couple of times with mistakes at the wrong time.
The Matadors fell 17-10 to Lackawanna in the El Toro Bowl, Saturday at Veterans Memorial Stadium in what was head coach Tom Minnick’s final game in Yuma.
An announcement was made earlier this week that he was leaving for Garden City Community College in Kansas.
Despite the loss AWC (6-5 overall) had chances going into the closing minutes, but turnovers, penalties and miscues would be the nail in the coffin once again.
“It’s no different than any other game we’ve played this year,” AWC coach Tom Minnick said. “We beat ourselves. We get down there and we can’t score, we jump offsides, not make the right block. It was that way all year. It wasn’t surprising today. It all starts with the man in charge. That’s the key and we didn’t get it done.”
Lackawanna finished the season undefeated (11-0) and goes out as the first team from Eastern Time to win the El Toro Bowl.
LAC: AWC:
AWC had three untimely turnovers in the game including one on the opening drive. The Mats had a drive go over six minutes to start the game before a fumble by quarterback Logan Byrd switched the field. Running back Alphonzo Graham had nine carries for 62 yards and was a bit part of getting a solid running back going in the game.
Graham got the start over an injured Jadon Hayes, who ended up playing and leading his team with 115 yards on 27 carries and a touchdown.
“Jadon was out. We thought Jadon wouldn’t play. He only practiced one day this week,” Minnick said.
In addition to the turnovers, AWC had two turnovers on downs in the first half. The first one took place when punter Matthew Hatchie bobbled a bad snap and lost 16 yards.
Lackawanna scored three plays later to go up 7-0 at 2:59 in the first.
The next AWC ended with a turnover on downs after seven minutes of grinding down the field. The Eagles responded after being on defense for all of that time with a 66-yard touchdown pass from Shane McLaughlin to Bob Jonjo to go up 14-0 at 11:19 in the second. At this point Lackawanna had 10 plays from scrimmage and 14 points.
The teams traded field goals before half and the Eagles went in up 17-3.
AWC had six drives in the first half with two turnovers, two turnovers on downs, a field goal and a punt.
Even with the miscues, the Mats were running the ball well. They had 208 yards on the ground and controlled the ball (39 minutes of possession to 21). Early in the second half they went 79 yards on 11 plays and seven minutes to make it a onescore game. Hayes punched the ball in from 19 yards to make the game 17-10.
Lackawanna wasn’t able to move the ball well in the second half and it was held to 72 yards after the break, but the same issues killed the Mats.
AWC had a nine-play, 32yard drive that spanned five minutes in the fourth quarter to get down to the Lackawanna 25. On fourth-andfive Byrd tossed up a pass