Desert Oasis comes up short against John Muir

Desert Oasis’ furious two-minute final drive ended eight yards short of the end zone Friday as John Muir (California) held on for a 6-0 win over the host Diamondbacks.

The Diamondbacks (0-2) took over on their own 31-yard line with 2:04 on the clock and their quarterback Mitch Moniz and leading rusher Jason Sanders sidelined with cramps.

However, Desert Oasis backup quarterback Jaden Mitchell ran the option to perfection, driving the Diamondbacks down to the Mustangs’ 5-yard line with 2 seconds on the clock. On the game’s final play, Rejon Osborne took the handoff from Mitchell on the jet sweep, but the John Muir (2-0) defense dropped Osborne for a 3-yard loss as the buzzer sounded.

“We lost Mitch at the end, so we went into a wildcat with Mitchell,” Desert Oasis coach Michael Ovens said. “We’ve practiced it a little bit, but we have to practice it some more. On that drive, they could have just buried themselves about not putting any points on the board, but they showed some toughness. It was real tough with the clock, the fans and the noise, but we will get better.

“I don’t know if that’s the play we wanted, but that’s the play we called. And that’s the play we live with. I would have liked to have thrown it into the end zone, but we were running the ball well with that kind of motion.”

After a scoreless first quarter, Elijah Blades — who is committed to the University of Florida — broke several tackles before finding the end zone on a 27-yard run to give the Mustangs a 6-0 lead.

On its opening possession of the second half, Desert Oasis drove to the Mustangs 4, but Tyron Clark dropped Moniz for a 12-yard loss to kill the drive’s momentum.

Despite exiting in the fourth quarter with cramps, Sanders ran for 155 yards on 21 carries, and Moniz completed 6 of 14 passes for 57 yards for Desert Oasis.

“We had a lot of cramping going on,” Ovens said. “I don’t know if they’re not getting enough water during the day. That’s my job. I need to make sure they’re getting that during the day. We’ll be okay. We’ll come out of this relatively healthy.”

Desert Oasis limited John Muir to only 77 yards rushing and 135 yards passing.

But it was penalties that hurt Desert Oasis this time.

“Our defense played so good, and they kept trying to get our offense the ball back,” Ovens said. “We were inside the 20 a couple of times and it seemed like what happened last week with Green Valley. The kids have to learn to be more disciplined and play within the program. If we can do that, we’ll be a good football team.”