Strong Start Fades as Eagle Football Opens With Loss to #3 Mt. SAC

The MSJC football team took advantage of an early Mt. SAC mistake to jump ahead of the State's #3 ranked team, but in the end lost to the Mounties 38-21.

Football season is underway for the Eagles and Saturday night they took on perennial State power and third ranked Mt. SAC at HCN Bank Stadium in Menifee.  MSJC kicked off to start the game and their defense made a statement early as they forced the Mounties off the field in just four plays.  The Eagles Offense, however had a bit of a slow start going three and out, but the MSJC punt was fumbled by the Mounties and recovered by Emillio Valencia at the Mt. SAC 2-yard line giving the Eagles an early opportunity.  Three plays later quarterback Logan Gonzalez found Jackson Weng in the end zone and the Eagles took an early 7-0 lead.  Mt. SAC would answer later in the first evening the game at 7-7.  The Eagles would retake the lead with 1:57 to play in the opening quarter when Moises Amezquita connected on a 48 yard field goal to make the score 10-7.  Unfortunately, the Mounties took advantage of some Eagle turnovers and would score three touchdowns in the second period to build a lead of 28-10 by halftime.

MSJC did come out of the locker room and get on the scoreboard again as they opened the second half with a 10-play drive that was capped off by an impressive 52 yard field goal by Amezquita.  Mt. SAC answered with a late third quarter touchdown to push the lead back to 35-13. 

The Eagles did get in the end zone one more time, however in the fourth period when Gonzalez hooked up with Donte Sams for a 25-yard TD with just over 7 minutes to play.

Gonzalez finished his night completing 35 of 62 passes for 282 yards, he had two balls intercepted and threw two touchdowns.  Christian Kretz had a team high 9 receptions for 51 yards, while Weng caught 8 balls for a team high 92 yards.  Koa Apana also made 8 receptions for 55 yards in the game.

On defense DeShawn Brooks got off to a strong start in his sophomore season as he made a team high 10 total tackles and had a fumble recovery.  Jonah Sellers had 7 tackles and a sack while Greg Jackson, DJ Bryant, Chase Shackleford, and Lakion Fowler were all credited with 5 stops each.  Nate Frankfather had an interception and a fumble recovery for the Eagles.

MSJC, now 0-1 on the season will travel to Citrus this week for a 6 pm game against the Owls.