The Los Medanos Mustangs football team played their first game of the season against the Gavilan Rams Aug. 2 and secured their first win of the season in convincing style.
Kickoff began at 1 p.m. and Gavilan traveled to midfield on a couple of rushes from Joey Fushell Jr., but they would be forced to punt, placing the Mustangs back on their own three-yard line.
This didn’t present any worries as quarterback Brenden Bush would score an immediate touchdown on the first play of the drive with a 97-yard pass to receiver Kimahni Tolefree. An offside penalty on the Rams and an extra point would put the Mustangs up seven points within two minutes of the game.
The next three drives consisted of both Gavilan and LMC making many defensive stops to force punts.
The first quarter nearly ended before Bush strung together two plays to secure another touchdown on a 37-yard pass to Jorge Hernandez. Gavilan would retain possession at the end of the first before LMC forced a snap fumble and used much of the second quarter to score another touchdown. An 11-yard pass to Tolefree put the Mustangs up 21-0.
The Rams would then battle back on the next drive and quarterback Carson Hersh connected with a 47-yard pass to Anthony Martine to secure the Ram’s first points. The rest of the quarter saw Gavilan battling to score, but an interception with two minutes remaining gave LMC the ball to end the half.
After halftime, more spectators flocked to the stands to watch the third-quarter kick-off. Upon receiving the ball to start the second half, the Stangs strung together several completions and got within field goal range before settling for the three points. Kicker Octavio Santero would launch it through the uprights to make it 24-7.
Hersh fumbled and LMC quickly scored on two conversions. Down 31-7, Gavilan tried to get their offense rolling but were off the field a minute later. As possession returned to LMC, it seemed they would score again as they were in the redzone, but they turned the ball over on downs.
Before Gavilan’s next drive, they had to tend to Devin Roberts, who had been injured on fourth down. After several minutes, the drive would begin and Gavilan struggled down the field rallying behind their injured teammate.
The fourth quarter began with Gavilan continuing to struggle and after getting sacked by LMC, Hersh made a few conversions scoring their last touchdown of the game with 12:29 left on the clock. LMC swiftly retaliated on the next drive with a touchdown of their own with a 50-yard pass to Hernandez.
With two back-to-back sacks from Kaleo Gomes, Gavilan’s next drive would end on another punt and LMC would take the ball within field goal range. Santero sending it through the uprights would send this game into its final score of 40-14.
After the game, Head Coach Christopher Shipe appeared happy about the win as he told his players, “be happy with the way you played versus them today.” But knows there is always room for improvement by following with “We got some work to do, tomorrow is your day off, the rest of this day is your day off,” Shipe said, “Monday we get back to work.”
Still, Shipe thought his team performed well and was firing on all cylinders.
“Offensively, our passing game went well. Defensively, I thought we really exploded to the ball,” Shipe said.
The LMC football team will play their first away game of the season against West Hills Coalinga Saturday, Aug. 9 at 1 p.m.
