The 10-0 Lancers football team took to the road for a five-hour drive to Santa Maria last Friday, Nov. 14, to play its second round football game.
The game was against the 8-2 Orcutt Spartans who dominated most of its opponents in the regular season but lost this game to the Lancers with a score of 57-20.
In the first round Orcutt knocked off Faith Baptist who last year beat the Lancers in the semifinals and went on to win the championship game.
The 10-0 Lancers football team took to the road for a five-hour drive to Santa Maria last Friday, Nov. 14, to play its second round football game.
The game was against the 8-2 Orcutt Spartans who dominated most of its opponents in the regular season but lost this game to the Lancers with a score of 57-20.
In the first round Orcutt knocked off Faith Baptist who last year beat the Lancers in the semifinals and went on to win the championship game.
The Lancers’ victory last week qualified the team for the semi-finals, which will be held at 5 p.m. today, Friday, Nov. 21.
On the very first offensive play for Orcutt at last week’s game, the Lancers stripped the ball from their running back and junior cornerback Cesar Ventura recovered the fumble, placing the Lancers offense immediately in scoring distance.
Three plays into Avalon’s first series junior running back Jose Carmen Silva ran in for the first touchdown of the night and then ran in an addition two point conversion score.
At the end of the first quarter the game was tied up 8-8 and the game was in either team’s hands. The Lancers started gaining momentum early in the second quarter when junior cornerback Cesar Ventura intercepted the Spartan’s quarterback and returned the interception 20 yards for a touchdown. Their momentum continued after their defense continued making numerous stops and their offense continued putting up numerous scores.
Avalon’s offense racked up a total of 462 yards in the game which made it this season’s highest yardage game for the Lancers. Avalon’s running attack was relentless and totaled 421 of those yards with junior full back Jerod Long leading the way with 184 yards rushing and junior running back Jose Carmen Silva with a total of 132 yards. Quarterback Cristian Martinez had a great offensive game, averaging almost 13 yards a throw and rushing for 97 yards. The scoring against Orcutt was shared with multiple lancer players. Jose Carmen Silva led the scoring with 2 touchdowns and 2 two point conversions, Jerod Long was next with 2 rushing touchdowns, Cesar Ventura also had a rushing touchdown and a touchdown off an interception and Cristian Martinez ran in for a score as well.
The Lancers defense held another strong game allowing only 38 rushing yards the whole game. The defense caused multiple turnovers and capitalized off of the Spartans mistakes over and over again. Defensive linemen Eduardo Pedroza, Harrison Hobbs and Chris Alcala were a constant issue for Orcutt’s offense when they hurried the opposing quarterback seven times and made it impossible for them to run. Jerod Long and Jose Carmen Silva tallied up a total of 21 tackles in the game and the defensive coverage led by Jason Cisneros had a total of 11 passes defended.
Tonight will be the Semi Final game in the playoffs. It will be a home game starting at 5 p.m. at Joe Machado Field. The Lancers will be taking on the Mojave Mustangs who last year were ranked #1 in the state until they faced Avalon who beat them in the second round of the playoffs with a score of 44-27. Come out and support your Lancers football team as they look to advance to the CIF Championship game for the first time in team history.
