John Muir too much for Desert Oasis

This time when the Mustangs arrived in town, they ran wild.

Demario Strong ran for three touchdowns in the first half and Brian Love added three scoring passes as John Muir (California) routed host Desert Oasis 48-0 on Friday.

The Diamondbacks (0-2) had a couple of chances to get on the board early, but a pair of turnovers ruined any chance of keeping pace with the high-powered Mustangs from Pasadena, California. John Muir (2-0) hasn’t allowed a point through two games this season and showed a completely different form compared to a year ago.

That game was 6-0 win by the Mustangs over the Dimaondbacks. The rematch was nowhere near as close, as Muir arrived with more focused and veteran bunch while Desert Oasis (0-2) is rebuilding with a much younger squad. As a result, the Mustangs (2-0) scored on big play after big play thanks to their talent and depth at the skill positions.

“They are a lot better a year ago, particularly in the areas of execution and discipline,” Diamondbacks head coach Mike Ovens said. “Their skill-position guys are really good.”

Even minus a top tailback in Johnathan Stephens, who sat out the game with an injury, Muir controlled things on the ground. D.J. Bailey ran for 96 yards on 11 carries, but even that paled next to the freshman dynamo Strong. Listed at 5 feet, 9 inches and 175 pounds, Strong showed both power and shiftiness in his runs. He reeled off a 14-yard gain the first time he touched the ball on the Mustangs’ opening drive. The second time, he took a pitch right, cut through a big hole, and raced down the right sidelines for a 34-yard TD run a little over four minutes into the contest.

Strong finished with 120 yards on five carries and added scoring runs of 25 and 18 yards.

Desert Oasis has its own promising running back in sophomore Christian Vaughn who managed 74 rushing yards on 13 carries. Using some trap runs up the middle past Muir blitzes, Desert Oasis moved the ball down on its second possesion to the 9-yard line. However, senior quarter Mitch Moniz tried to lob a pass into the end zone only for it to be picked off Muir’s 6-3 defensive back Nick Moore.

Desert Oasis would later drive to inside the Muir 30 on another first-quarter possession, but fumbled the ball away to spoil another chance. In doing so, the Diamondbacks lost any chance to keep up with the high-powered Mustangs offense and never seriously threatened again.

“We knew we were going to have a young team,” Ovens said. “We had a couple of guys at junior varsity who could have played some, but we wanted to keep them down to get more snaps. However, when you have a young team, you have to avoid making mistakes and commiting turnovers.”