Photos by Josh Thompson, Gus Vargas & Anthony Sarinana
College Football:
By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Sports Editor
For the first 27 minutes or so of Saturday night’s showdown, Citrus and Mt. SAC were locked in a 14-14 tie.
The Mounties and Owls entered the contest with identical 3-0 records, and they were ranked third and seventh in the state, respectively.
But Dedrek Taylor-Akins caught 39-and-57-yard TD passes from Alex Flores to give the visitors from Walnut a 28-14 lead at the half.
And the Mounties never let Citrus back in, claiming a 42-21 victory, and in the process, ending the Owls’ state-best 17-game win streak.
Over the long haul, MSAC used their depth at the skilled positions to pull away from a very tough and proud Owls’ program.
Flores completed 15-of-23 for 245 yards, and that included TD passes of 31, 39, 57 and 17 yards.
Taylor-Akins had four catches for 113 yards and three of the four went for scores.
Jordan Williams caught a 31-yard TD pass from Flores about 10 minutes in to give MSAC a 7-0 lead.
Nick Floyd anchored the Mounties ground game with 113 yards on 12 carries.
Floyd had TD runs of 28 and 48 yards.
The Mounties defense was able to hold the two leading Citrus running backs to 98 yards on 26 carries.
Tayvonne Miller carried the ball 15 times for 69 yards and Kannon Katzer gained 29 yards on 11 carries.
Katzer, however, would break a few tackles and scored on an 18-yard run with 6:39 to play in the half to catch MSAC at 14-14.
Koy Riggin completed 16-of-23 for 136 yards.
Riggin had TD passes of 2 and 13 yards.
And the Owls quarterback was picked once (Elija Griffin).
Jesse Carmona led the Citrus receiving corps with six catches for 90 yards.
Maurice Hampton caught a 2-yard TD pass from Riggin to tie the game at 7-7.
And Donovan Zackery’s 17-yard TD catch early in the fourth quarter capped the scoring for the Owls.
Mt. SAC had a 406-273 advantage in total offense.
The Owls defense held Mt. SAC to 161 yards rushing, which is 143 under its weekly average.
Kaylon Bradley led the MSAC defense with nine tackles, including a pair of sacks.
Shamar Hawkins, Deon Cavitt, Reggie Johnson and Katin Suprenant had eight tackles apiece and Johnson had 1.5 sacks.
Cody Stordahl led the Citrus defense with seven tackles.
Chandler Carthan finished with six tackles and that included a sack that ended the Mounties second drive of the game.
Up next: The Owls travel to Golden West next Saturday at noon, and the Mounties host SBVC at 6.
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Quotable:
Mt. SAC quarterback, Alex Flores: “Citrus played an extremely tough game and they fought til the very end. The coaches over there definitely have the right formula and they will be winning many more games this year. Offensively, we just needed to not make any mistakes. We knew we had to protect the ball and not give them any extra possessions. We started a little slow, but once we started to get in a rhythm, we were feeling more like ourselves. Our coaches put together a great game plan and made key in-game adjustments, and we just needed to execute each play. Throwing to guys like Dedrek makes my job easy. I know when the ball is in the air, he’s going to come down with it. He and all the receivers had a great night last night. We felt that we left too many points off the board that we know we have to clean up moving forward. But it was a collective effort, and the big boys up front played extremely hard all night making holes for our backs and giving me time to throw the ball. Running backs ran hard and downhill all night.”
Box Score:
MS: 7-21-14-0-(42)
CC: 0-14-0-7-(21)
Scoring:
MS: Jordan Williams 31 pass from Alex Flores (Diego Esqueda kick)
CC: Maurice Hampton 2 pass from Koy Riggin (Kosuke Kayahara kick)
MS: Nicholas Floyd 28 run (Diego Esqueda kick)
CC: Kannon Katzer 18 run (Kosuke Kayahara kick)
MS: Dedrek Taylor-Akins 39 pass from Alex Flores (Diego Esqueda kick)
MS: Dedrek Taylor-Akins 57 pass from Alex Flores (Diego Esqueda kick)
MS: Nicholas Floyd 48 run (Diego Esqueda kick)
MS: Dedrek Taylor-Akins 17 pass from Alex Flores (Diego Esqueda kick)
CC: Donovan Zackery 13 pass from Koy Riggin (Kosuke Kayahara kick)
Records: Mt. SAC (4-0); Citrus (3-1)
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