The Mountain View Mountain Lions defeated the Flowing Wells Caballeros 37-13 Friday night in the Mountain Lions’ first 5A Sonoran region game of the year.
This is a rematch of last year’s game when Mountain View (3-3 overall, 1-0 in the 5A Sonoran) won 35-14 at home.
The Caballeros (3-4, 0-2) received the opening kickoff and drove down to the red zone when quarterback Tyler Friedenberg found fullback Alfredo Guzman for the touchdown to put Flowing Wells up 7-0 with 6:50 left in the first quarter.
That score held until the end of the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, on a fourth down in Flowing Wells territory, Mountain View quarterback Damien Wallace was picked off by Flowing Wells safety Benicio Ruiz.
Flowing Wells quickly went three and out and punted it back to Mountain View, which immediately was set up in the red zone on a big run by wide receiver Diego Gomez. This was shortly followed with a touchdown run by running back Nicholas Horrocks with 5:04 left in the first half. The extra point was blocked to keep the game 7-6 Flowing Wells.
Mountain View got the ball back after a Flowing Wells punt with 1:58 left in the half.
With 45 seconds left until halftime, Mountain View had a big third-and-4 play at the Flowing Wells 11. Wallace ran for 10 yards down to the 1-yard line and Gomez finished the drive off with a rushing touchdown with no time remaining in the first half. After an unsuccessful two-point conversion, the Mountain Lions led 12-7 at the half.
Mountain View started the second half with the ball and quickly got into Flowing Wells territory on a big run by Horrocks, who later in the drive got his second touchdown of the game. After a successful two-point conversion run by Horrocks, Mountain View led 20-7 with 5:45 left in the third quarter.
After another Flowing Wells punt, Mountain View drove the ball down to the red zone when quarterback Ion Brin scored a touchdown to make it 27-7 Mountain Lions with 1:36 left in the third quarter.
The third quarter ended with that score with Mountain View getting the ball back after Flowing Wells turned it over on downs.
Wallace finished the drive with a rushing touchdown to make it 34-7 Mountain View with 8:46 left in the game.
Mountain View got the ball back with 6:04 left after Flowing Wells punted the ball away. From there, the Mountain Lions ran the ball into field goal range where kicker Rourke Cano made a field goal with 51 seconds left to make the score 37-7 Mountain View.
With time expiring, Friedenberg connected with wide receiver Jack Youmans on a long touchdown.
After an unsuccessful two-point conversion, the game ended with Mountain View winning 37-13.
“It feels great, to get the win and see our kids keep getting better; we’re really happy,” said Mountain View coach Matt Johnson.
The Mountain Lions ended the game with 440 rushing yards with Horrocks leading the way with 114. Liam Lewis also went over 100 yards on the ground with 105 and Wallace and Gomez ended with 81 and 80 yards, respectively.
“Everybody stayed patient and calm, our offensive line has been getting better and they’re just working hard each week,” Johnson said about the dominant running game.
Flowing Wells will be off next week before a game on Oct. 25 at Tucson High. After that, the Caballeros will have two more games in November against Nogales and Maricopa to finish their season.
Mountain View has back-to-back road games against Nogales and Maricopa before returning home on Nov. 1 against Tucson High.
Henry Kaplowitz is a senior at The University of Arizona studying journalism. He is interested in sports reporting and can be reached at henrykaplowitz@arizona.edu.
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