Foothill finds offense in second half, tops Chaparral
By halftime Friday, Foothill football coach Martin Redmond knew his defense was in top form. He had to wait until the second half, however, to see his offense kick in.
In the end, the fifth-ranked Falcons rolled to a convincing 26-6 victory over visiting Chaparral in the final regular-season game for both teams.
Jordan Blakely rushed four times for 72 yards, scoring two rushing touchdowns and adding a 10-yard TD reception. Teammate Koy Riggin completed 19 of 26 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns.
Foothill’s offense got off to a promising start, with Blakely weaving his way through traffic to score a 60-yard touchdown on the game’s opening play.
“(Blakely) is a special player,” Redmond said. “On that first play of the game, he made tons of guys miss, and it just looked like a video game.”
But penalties and miscues hurt the Falcons (9-1, 4-1 Southeast League) for the rest of the half, and the Cowboys (4-5, 1-4) took advantage with field goals of 50 and 42 yards by Dennis Perez to cut their deficit to 7-6 with 5:13 left in the second quarter, despite being held to 1 yard in the first half.
“Our offense didn’t play very well in the first half,” Redmond said. “They were not very focused, and they just beat themselves.”
But Foothill capped an 11-play drive with a 2-yard scoring plunge by Blakely as time expired to end the first half, and the Falcons led 14-6 at halftime.
Foothill controlled the ball and the clock from the start of the second half, with Blakely capping a 90-yard drive on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Riggin late in the third quarter. Riggin found Matthew Hanson streaking down the left sideline early in the fourth, resulting in a 38-yard touchdown to put the game out of reach.
Chaparral continued to struggle offensively in the second half and was held to 34 yards.
“We can’t seem to put it all together on the same night,” Redmond said. “One of these nights, we’re going to get good offense and defense on the same night.”
Jakob Petry had five receptions for 62 yards to help Foothill, and teammate Mario Armendariz carried 13 the ball times for 91 yards.
Meshach Hawkins had three receptions for 32 yards to lead the Cowboys.