Skyhawks eventually power past Mountain Lions

It was a strange, almost eerie setting for football at Silverado on Friday, as two of the four light standards at the stadium never turned on because of a blown circuit breaker.

“It was almost like playing on the dark side of the moon or something,” Silverado senior defensive end Kyle Anderson said.

For much of the first half, the Skyhawks also appeared to be a little in the dark. Winless Sierra Vista trailed only 14-7 with just over a minute left in the second quarter.

But Silverado flipped a switch in the second half, outgaining the Mountain Lions 357 to minus-8 and coasting to a 53-7 victory.

“I don’t know what got into our guys. It was a whacky first half,” Silverado coach Andy Ostolaza said. “We just didn’t get going until the second half. I think we had a letdown from Desert Pines. We just started slow and made some really bad mistakes. It was a weird deal.”

Anderson said Ostolaza demanded the Skyhawks get back on track at halftime.

“Coach started yelling at us, and we got our heads in the game and finished business,” said Anderson, who moved from middle linebacker to defensive end in the game and came up with three sacks to lead the defense.

Terran Madu-Jules led the offensive onslaught, as he lit up the Mountain Lions with second-half touchdown runs of 36 yards, 40 yards, 54 yards and 1 yard. He finished with 257 yards on 21 carries, with 174 yards coming in the second half.

“The second half is what we should be playing like most of the time,” Ostolaza said.

Quarterback Trent Tipton kept Silverado in front in the first half with three touchdown runs.

His biggest came on the first play from scrimmage after Christian Rodriguez scored on a 2-yard run for Sierra Vista (0-4) to cut the lead to 14-7 with 1:17 left in the second quarter.

After taking a shotgun snap on a designed pass play, Tipton avoided two defenders in the backfield, scrambled to the left around the defense and bolted 66 yards for a touchdown that gave Silverado a 21-7 advantage and some momentum going into halftime.

Tipton finished with 88 yards rushing and 107 yards passing. For the game, Silverado’s offense outgained the Mountain Lions 552-24.

Silverado heads into Southeast League play next week with a 4-0 record, but Ostolaza said that means nothing.

“We started off last year 3-0, then we went 1-5 in league and were out of the playoffs,” Ostolaza said. “So we are starting over at 0-0 after tonight. And with our division, everyone from top to bottom can win it, so every game is going to be a dogfight.”