MAXWELL, CA (MPG) – What initially looked to be a shootout between Maxwell and visiting Weed went sideways fast last Friday as the Cougars put five unanswered touchdowns on the board to break the game open and hand the Panthers a 30-50 season ending loss.
Weed, the second-place team in the Cascade Valley League, has a potent offense led by
senior DJ Horton, who was a one-man wrecking crew last Friday night, carrying 19 times for 287 yards and five touchdowns and tossing two touchdown passes, in addition to making five tackles and intercepting a pass on defense.
Yet, despite Horton’s performance, Maxwell hung tough for much of the first half, starting the game with a five-play, 60-yard drive, in which quarterback Noel Velazquez hit receiver Rudi Gonzalez in stride, resulting in a 45-yard touchdown.
After converting the two-point try, the Panthers opted for an onside kick attempt that was recovered by the Cougars near midfield and allowed Weed to respond three plays later, when Horton found a wide-open receiver in the end zone.
Undeterred, Maxwell took its second possession and marched 64 yards, capping the drive with an 11-yard pass fromVelazquez that bounced off a Weed defender into the arms of receiver Eddie Izquierdo in the end zone.
While the play, and ensuing two-point try, put the Panthers on top 16-8, the Cougars once again answered right back, although trailed by two after the conversion attempt failed.
As the second quarter dawned, Maxwell extended its advantage to 24-14, when on a fourth down play Velazquez found Tanner Vierra in the end zone.
Unfortunately, for the Panthers, the remaining eight minutes left in the half proved disastrous as Weed scored four times including a last second 30-yard touchdown pass from Horton, who after eluding the rush, connected with a receiver to make the score 44-24 in the Cougars’ favor at half.
While the Maxwell defense rallied in the second half to hold Weed to just one additional score, the Panther offense couldn’t gain much traction until they put a late touchdown on the board after a Velazquez five-yard run.
After the game, Coach Lane Davis credited the Cougars team and wondered what might have been had his team executed at some key junctures.
“That team [Weed] has a group of good athletes,” Davis said, “The quarterback tore us up last year in league , then we went back up there in the playoffs and defended him well. But tonight he did it to us again. Still, had we been able to convert on fourth down in the second quarter and not given up that touchdown right before half, it might have been a different game.”
But things did not go the Panthers’ way, and, as they gathered one last time after the game, they found themselves focusing on how lessons learned on the football field translate to life and what must be done to be better when they retake the field next season.
In his final game for Maxwell, Gonzalez caught four passes for 83 yards, while Vierra, a sophomore, made five catches for 60 yards.
Velazquez, a junior, completed 15 passes for 211 yards.
The Panthers finished 4-4 in the CVL, which was good for sixth place and with an overall record of 5-5.