Football: Alpine's quick start in second half sinks McCamey

ALPINE McCamey head coach Ronnie Molina said his team had momentum before its game against Alpine was postponed early in the second quarter Friday night because of bad weather.

On Saturday afternoon, the Badgers started with first-and-10 on Alpine’s 20-yard line.

But the Badgers’ momentum was blunted by a delay-of-game penalty — the only such call in the game at Buck Stadium, which had no play clocks — as well as a pass knocked down by senior defensive back Carlos Mendoza and a botched field-goal attempt on fourth down.

On the next drive, Alpine senior quarterback Dominic Scott connected with sophomore receiver Taylor O’Bryant for a 30-yard score and the Fightin’ Bucks cruised to a 41-20 nondistrict victory.

“We had to come out here, our backs against the wall, no kickoff, just cold,” Fightin’ Bucks head coach Shad Hanna said. “But we got the stop.”

Alpine (2-0) could not be stopped once play resumed. The game got going at 2 p.m. Saturday with McCamey (0-2) behind 6-0 after a little more than one quarter was played Friday night.

After O’Bryant’s score, McCamey had third-and-9 on Alpine’s 31 with the second quarter drawing to a close. McCamey quarterback Ethan Richardson scrambled right and threw across his body into the hands of a leaping Mendoza.

Mendoza found a lane and returned the interception 90 yards for a touchdown. The two-point conversion failed and the Fightin’ Bucks took a 20-0 lead into halftime.

The second-quarter swing did in the Badgers.

In addition to a team-high 75 rushing yards, Alpine’s Scott finished 16-of-24 passing for 257 yards, no interceptions and four touchdowns, two to O’Bryant, who had four grabs for 104 yards.

“I feel confident in my line and the offense,” Scott said. “I feel like any of my receivers can get open, and if not, I’ll just run.”

Running is what Richardson used to get his offense three touchdowns with runs of 3, 2 and 19 yards.

He was also 5-of-13 for 89 yards and the interception. Despite all the Badgers’ scores coming from his rushes, Richardson felt like he should have given his receivers a little more time.

“Our passing game has to get better,” he said. “I need to get more experience reading defenses. I should have thrown more and not took off so many times.”

Alpine junior middle linebacker Taylor Moore said most of the game plan was to slow Richardson.

“He has the legs,” Moore said. “He’s the one that scored on us last year and he can have a good game if you don’t contain him.”

Molina said McCamey looked better than in last week’s 46-14 loss to Seagraves. The defense was strong at times against Alpine, he said, and overall the team is gelling.

“We got (almost) 400 yards of offense,” Molina said. “That’s not bad against a 2A school.”

>> Alpine 41, McCamey 20

McCamey        0                      0                      6                      14                    —                    20

Alpine              6                      14                    13                    8                      —                    41

SCORING SUMMARY

First Quarter

Alpine: Emilo Lopez 1 run (pass failed), 6:25.

Second Quarter

Alpine: Taylor O’Bryant 30 pass from Dominic Scott (Carlos Mendoza pass from Scott), 3:28.

Alpine: Mendoza 90 interception return (run failed), :5.

Third Quarter

Alpine: Emilo Lopez 40 pass from Scott (pass failed), 10:23.

McCamey: Ethan Richardson 3 run (kick failed), 4:35.

Alpine: Alfredo Armendariz 19 pass from Scott (Ely Gallego kick), 1:04.

Fourth Quarter

McCamey: Richardson 2 run (Richardson run), 9:56.

Alpine: O’Bryant 20 pass from Scott (O’Bryant pass from Scott), 7:38.

McCamey: Richardson 19 run (run failed), 6:14.

———

TEAM STATISTICS

Yardstick              McCamey        Alpine

First Downs              16                 17

Total Yards              359                406

Rushes-Yards         45-270           30-149

Passing Yards            89                257

Passing                 5-13-1          16-24-0

Fumbles-Lost            1-1               1-0

Punts-Avg             2-27.5           1-35.0

Penalties-Yards       8-45               4-50

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

McCamey: Ethan Richardson 22-161; Jonathan Dominguez 7-22; Jose Esparza 16-87.

Alpine: Dominic Scott 14-75; Emilo Lopez 4-(24); Arael Huerta 8-25; Alfredo Armendariz 4-28.

Passing

McCamey: Ethan Richardson 5-13-1—89.

Alpine: Dominic Scott 16-24-0—257.

Receiving

McCamey: Martin Morales 2-37; Justin Rodriguez 1-12     ; Dominguez 1-15; Aaron Mesa 1-25.

Alpine: Alfredo Armendariz 3-53; Carlos Mendoza 4-53; Arael Huerta 1-7; Taylor O’Bryant 6-104; Emilo Lopez 1-40.