Vista Murrieta can't ground Encino Crespi's passing game
CRESPI QB THROWS FOR 482 YARDS, 5 TDS IN HANDING BRONCOS FIRST NONLEAGUE LOSS SINCE 2004
By JEFF SANDERS - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it | Posted: Saturday, October 2, 2010 12:54 am
MURRIETA ---- Six years had passed since Vista Murrieta lost a nonleague game. Broncos coach Coley Candaele hopes the aftertaste of a new low pushes his Broncos to newer heights down the road.
Encino Crespi quarterback Kenneth Stenhouse threw for 482 yards and five touchdowns, the Broncos' offense didn't do enough with five takeaways and the visiting Celts handed Vista Murrieta a school record-setting 45-31 loss in a matchup between heavyweight programs Friday night.
"We haven't lost in preseason in (six) years ---- I don't think it's a bad thing," Candaele said after his defense allowed 45 points, topping the 44 points allowed to Chaparral in the Broncos' inaugural varsity season in 2004. "There are things we've got to fix to play better, but we just got outplayed.
"We didn't lose the game. They just beat us."
And the Celts (4-1) did it with a vertical game that the Broncos (3-1) couldn't run with.
Highly touted receiver Devin Lucien hauled in eight catches for 183 yards and three scores, including a 66-yard catch-and-run on Crespi's third play from scrimmage, 5-foot-4 receiver Michael Davison caught seven passes for 112 yards and two touchdowns, and Christopher Harper managed eight receptions for 142 yards.
The outburst went a long way toward negating five lost Crespi fumbles, including Harper's turnover on the third play of the second half to set up Vista Murrieta quarterback Derrick Brown's 30-yard touchdown strike to Michael Mazur to tie the game at 24 with 9:34 left in the third quarter.
Stenhouse, though, didn't stress the turn of events. He just put the ball back in his receivers' hands.
"It's great ... to have receivers that can come down with the ball in big situations," he said.
Like clockwork, Stenhouse answered the Broncos' score with a 49-yard touchdown strike to Lucien on the ensuing drive and then a 1-yard TD run of his own after the second of Brown's three interceptions set up the Celts inside the Broncos' 5-yard line.
Just like that, within a span of 4 minutes, Crespi had built a two-touchdown lead.
"We're not used this," said Broncos defensive lineman Jonathan Sanchez, who recorded two sacks. "Forty-five points ---- nobody has ever scored that many points on us. We just need to cut down on our mistakes and do better next week."
Brown led Vista Murrieta's offense with 102 yards rushing on 15 carries and he threw for 220 yards and three scores ---- all to Mazur on catches of 28, 30 and 19 yards, with the last cutting the Broncos' deficit to 45-31 with 5:37 left in the game. The first of Brown's interceptions, however, was a controversial turnover in the second quarter on a ball the head official ruled an interception after the line judge called the pass incomplete after the ball bounced out of the hands of the Celts defender when he hit the ground.
The Celts kept the ball and needed just six plays to turn a missed call into a 14-3 lead on Davison's 21-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass from Stenhouse.
Candaele was in the ref's ear for much of the first half but opted not to dwell on the call after his team suffered its first nonleague loss since a 26-6 defeat at the hands of San Marcos Mission Hills in 2004.
"The ball hit the ground," Candaele said. "It was a bad call, but you're not going to get them all right. It's a complete miss-call. You've got to live with it. You're not going to worry about it. We got plenty of sevens off of their mistakes. It evens out.
"They made more plays than us and they're a better football team than us right now. We'll see what happens in the coming weeks and how we respond to it."