By CLAIRE CRUZ, Staff Writer
LYFORD — The Lyford Bulldogs didn’t play as well as coach Israel Gonzalez knows they can, but they did enough to open their district slate with a 64-6 win over Santa Gertrudis Academy.
In their first game back at Bulldog Stadium, the Bulldogs (3-0, 1-0 District 16-3A Division I Zone A) saw everyone contributing, whether they were a starter or role player.
“It means a lot to us to play in front of our home crowd,” Gonzalez said. “We were able to come out and be successful again and got every kid on the field, which is important to us at home, so we’re proud of the kids and their effort.”
Lyford scored on its opening drive as senior Devon “Papacito” Mendoza turned a short pass from senior quarterback Cayleb Klostermann into a 63-yard touchdown.
The Lions got back-to-back possessions due to a muffed punt by Lyford. But the Bulldogs’ defense held firm, helped by big tackles for loss by senior Diego Garza and junior Diego Guerra.
Lyford’s offense struggled after the opening drive, but solid running by Mendoza and Morales and the strong arm of Klostermann managed to open up a comfortable lead. Morales scored on a 44-yard rush and Klostermann threw touchdown passes to Guerra and senior receiver Matt Sanchez to make it 27-0 at halftime.
“First half was a little slow, lots of stuff to work on and lots of penalties. But we talked it over, came out in the second half strong and threw up a lot of points,” Klostermann said. “To put it simply, things didn’t go our way. Throwing into the wind was a pain, lots of penalties, missed extra points. But we’ll take the ‘W.’”
Santa Gertrudis made a quarterback change early in the second quarter, putting Brandt Tinsley under center. The Lions turned to the pass with Tinsley running the offense and found some momentum, but they didn’t hit paydirt until the second half.
Following a kickoff return for a touchdown by Lyford junior Mark Marroquin to open the third quarter, Tinsley hit receiver Kirby Owen for a 37-yard pass to get to the Bulldogs’ 22-yard-line. On the next play, the two connected again for the only Santa Gertrudis score of the night, making it 33-6.
The Bulldogs quickly zapped any hope for a Lions comeback by scoring three more touchdowns during the final 9:37 of the quarter. They capitalized on a fumbled punt and a fumbled kickoff, recovered by sophomore defensive back Oscar Martinez and senior Raymond Vela, respectively, for the first two scores, and then a blocked punt created another short field and quick touchdown.
Santa Gertrudis put together a good, clock-eating drive to start the fourth quarter as Tinsley hit Adrian Gonzalez and Jacob Espinoza to get down to the 2-yard line. The teams swapped penalties to slow down the momentum.
On first-and-goal from the 3, Tinsley threw into the end zone and was intercepted by senior defensive back Valente Rosas, who ran it the length of the field for the pick-six. Lyford found the end zone once more on a 26-yard rushing score by junior backup quarterback Brendan Nunez. Both scores got the Lyford sideline jumping, screaming and running downhill with the playmakers.
“Every single kid in our program works extremely hard, from the JV kids all the way up,” Gonzalez said. “To see these kids all get in the game and be successful and score touchdowns, guys that aren’t the first unit, that’s big for us and special for us. The kids love each other, they’re brothers, and when they see a brother make a big play, they get excited.”
Santa Gertrudis slowly drove downfield to close the fourth with its third quarterback, Dominack Garcia, under center. He carried the load with his legs but couldn’t make anything happen.
“Our defense is the most important part of this team. They hold it down,” Klostermann said. “They haven’t allowed double digits in any of our games. It definitely comes from them. They even score by themselves, and special teams, too, so it comes from everyone.”
Klostermann finished the night with five touchdowns, two of them rushing, and Morales added two on the ground. Mendoza and sophomore Osmar Martinez helped move the ball downfield throughout the night. Senior defensive lineman Rene Paredez and senior linebacker Julio Cantu had big nights to lead the defense.
Penalties were the biggest issue for the Bulldogs. They had two touchdowns called back due to penalties during the second half, and consecutive flags killed a hurried attempt to score before halftime despite the drive starting on Santa Gertrudis’ 4-yard-line.
“It’s always us against ourselves. We’re going to go back and look at the film, and I can tell you right now there’s a lot of penalties, execution issues,” Gonzalez said. “Early on in the first half, I felt we didn’t play a clean half of football. We came out and played a better second half. Definitely stuff to work on, and that’s what you want. I don’t think we’ve peaked yet, so that’s a good thing starting the district slate and hopefully we can peak at the right time.”