Football:
As of kickoff on Friday night, Western Christian was 4-0 and the Fighting Lancers were ranked 82 spots higher than Maranatha in the MaxPreps state rankings.
The Minutemen, however, scored the game’s first 30 points and cruised to a 58-33 victory.
Western Christian trailed 44-8 before scoring on the last play of the second quarter.
And the Lancers got as close as 44-27 in the third period.
But there’s this little guy with gigantic skills named Miles O’Malley, and he refused to let his boys lose on Friday evening in a game that took nearly three hours to complete.
O’Malley scored six total TD’s and rushed for 260 yards.
The MHS junior had TD runs of 3, 51, 14, 45 and 57 yards.
O’Malley also caught a 19-yard TD pass from Luke McNulty to give the Minutemen a 23-0 lead in the first quarter.
But the game’s most memorable play came in the third quarter.
Western Christian had pulled to within 17 points, and they were so amped that a Lancers’ defender decided he was going to walk towards the line of scrimmage and taunt O’Malley with words and gestured to the MHS running back with both of his hands.
It was like, “bring it on, man.”
Well, Miles O’Malley brought it on, scoring on a 45-yard TD.
And the irony of all ironies is O’Malley beat that same defender before entering the east end zone, and for all intents and purposes, he put the game on ice.
McNulty had three TD’s passes in the win.
Aside from his 19-yard strike to O’Malley, McNulty and Bradley Loiacano hooked up on a 59-yard score to give Maranatha an early 7-0 lead.
After Camden Jones sacked the Western Christian quarterback in the end zone for a safety, McNulty would toss a 23-yard TD to Jones, and the Minutemen led 16-0.
Niko Vergara and Loiacono both picked off Western Christian’s Jared Doolittle.
Jeffrey Jackson got the Lancers on the board with his 11-yard TD run to pull to within 30-8 after the two-point conversion pass was successful.
On the last play of the first half, Jackson reeled in a 19-yard TD pass from Doolittle.
And on the first drive of the second half, Doolittle connected with Darryl Booker on a 7-yard touchdown.
Doolittle’s third of three TD’s went to Elijah Vasquez from 10 yards out.
To their credit, the Lancers didn’t stop fighting until the final whistle.
At the bottom of the story are some scoring plays and a couple of interviews.
Up next: The Minutemen open Cottonwood League play next week at Hamilton in Anza.
The Bobcats (0-5) fell, 27-14, on Thursday at Tri-City Christian.
Box Score:
WC: 0-14-19-0-(33)
M: 23-21-7-7-(58)
Records: Western Christian (4-1); Maranatha (4-1)
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