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Cathie Lawrence

From left to right: Los Medanos College’s quarterback Gabe Taylor jukes out a 49er defender.  Z’andre Givens stiff arms a would be tackler.  Billy Wells carries a Yuba defender on his back while fighting for more yards.

The Los Medanos Mustangs picked up win number two in a row and five on the season last Saturday with a 27-21 home victory over Yuba.

The Mustangs offense out gained Yuba 316-243 with quarterback Gabe Taylor leading the way with 181 passing yards and two touchdowns.

While LMC would ultimately take home the W, things did not start out looking that way. Yuba’s Ariyon Huff took the opening kick off 93 yards down to the LMC two yard line where they punched it in for 6 on the next paly.

Things didn’t get much better as the Mustang’s first drive went a grand total of -10 yards and were forced to punt.

The LMC defense then forced a Yuba three and out

and got the ball back at their own 27.

Gabe Taylor orchestrated an eight-play 83-yard drive capped off by a 13-yard touchdown strike to Z’andre Givens to tie the game at 7.

On Yuba’s next position the defense let up a 19-yard rush on first down, but stood tall and forced Yuba to bring out their punter for their second straight series.

As LMC’s defense forced its second straight punt, Yuba’s defense gave up its second straight touchdown. LMC’s four-play 74-yard drive ended with Taylor’s second touchdown pass this time to Tyrone Roberts.

Yuba showed signs of life during their fourth drive but eventually stalled out and punted for the third time in a row.

The Mustang offense picked up right were it left off and moved the ball into Yuba territory. When faced with fourth and four at Yuba’s 28-yard line, the coaching staff decided to let the red hot offense try and pick up the first down instead of taking their three points. The decision didn’t pay off as Taylor threw incomplete for Jelani Davis.

Yuba got the ball back and again started marching down the field. They had first and goal at the LMC 7 and were looking for the tying score. Charlie Ramirez Jr. had other ideas. He forced a fumble from Yuba’s Nate VanDusen, which LMC’s Alex Espinosa recovered at the Mustang’s ten-yard line.

The celebration by the defense was short lived as on the first play following the fumble, Taylor threw an interception giving the back right back to the Yuba offense inside the red zone.

It was gut check time for the Mustang’s defense. They had just been on the field for twelve plays and essentially got a one play break and had to go right back out. They responded perfectly and stopped Yuba on all four downs getting the ball back and most importantly, kept Yuba from adding any points.

Pinned deep in their own territory, the Mustang’s offense couldn’t get anything going and were forced to punt. Yuba’s special teams came through again for them as Ariyon Huff had another great return, except he took this one to the house and tied the game at 14 a piece.

The score stood at 14-14 as both teams left for the locker room for halftime.

Los Medanos got the ball first to start the second half and the offense looked like it did on during the first half. Taylor and the offense methodically moved the ball into the red zone where this time when faced with fourth down, the Stangs opted to go for the field goal rather than try and pick up the first down. This, much like their last fourth down in the red zone, had the Mustangs come up empty as Ceasar Hernandez-Tellez’s field goal try was off the mark.

Yuba took over and their drive lasted all of three plays before they punted the ball right back the LMC.

Sohail Moshsini took the field at quarterback and his first drive resulted in a 17-yard touchdown run by Z’andre Givens which game the lead back the LMC 21-14.

The Yuba offense again got the ball rolling and moved it to right outside the Mustang red zone. Another forced fumble by the LMC defense against dashed any scoring hopes for Yuba.

LMC would eventually extend their lead to and win by a score of 27-21

After the game head coach Chris Shipe sung his team praises. “We’ll I’m definitely happy at where we’re at at this point in the season. Each week is an obstacle and every opponent is dangerous. You can never take an opponent lightly because that’s when teams find ways to upset the better team. With 4 games left on the schedule we’re focused on San Jose City this week, there record of 1-5 does not show the type of team they can be. As a staff we’re really impressed with them on film but we just have to continue to keep working on ourselves in all aspects of the game, defense, offense and special teams,” said Shipe.

For more information on LMC football visit http://www.losmedanos.edu/football/