Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
Small load
The term “dirty laundry on the field” normally refers to a penalty flag that has been thrown by one of the game officials. Well, there was just a small load of laundry Friday at Warhorse Stadium as only 8 flags were tossed all night, with just three of those flipped Devine’s direction.
Nothing can kill drives and team momentum like a penalty at the most inopportune time. Luckily, the Warhorses kept the “laundry” clean most of the evening as they only got moved back 30 yards in all.
Balls on the ground
In addition to drive-killing penalties, turnovers can also quickly turn the momentum of a game. In the history of football, the team that wins the turnover battle oftentimes wins the war.
Devine bucked that noteworthy trend as they fumbled the ball over to the Coyotes once and threw one interception as well. On the other side of the field, Uvalde only committed one turnover which was on an interception.
Oh, but that interception could not have been at a more perfect time as Tristan LaFond tipped a thrown ball that eventually found the hands and arms of Eli Contreras that put the victorious icing on top of the cake to close out the win at Warhorse Stadium.
EE talks about his ‘D’
Defensive Coordinator Evan Eads summed up his defensive effort perfectly in his post-game, little more than a tidbit recap, saying…
“The Warhorses had something to prove Friday against Uvalde after our performance the week before. The previous loss was not our best effort, and we wanted to show our fans and future opponents that Devine has a formidable defense that gets stops and turnovers against quality opponents. Uvalde had a slew of offensive weapons with a tall QB who is accurate and quick, a running back that can carry three defenders into the endzone, and the largest line we have seen so far.
We felt that we really needed to play well. I am very proud of how well we did lining up prior to the snap. We were 100% in being in the right alignment and; that has to be a given going forward. We were aggressive in our paths and block destructions.
Uvalde tried to pick on our corners, but Ayden Leal and Brayden Reyes won most of their battles. We knew they were going to score at some point, and after they got those quick scores to take the lead the question was, ‘how are we going to handle adversity?’ It was great to see that we did not panic. We settled down and got the stops when it counted.
Once our offense put us back in the lead 28-24, the Warhorse ‘D’ got stops the rest of the way. To see that our effort never waned was very promising, and it happened just in time.
Tristan Lafond defeated his block on a pass rush to deflect the pass into the arms of Eli Contreras to put away the game. We have more opponents on our schedule that pose different threats, so we must go back to practice and continue to improve.”
Two for the road
Gabriel Esquibel and Sam Guardiola accounted for 302 yards of the 302 yards total rushing by the Warhorses. Wait, 302 of 302? Isn’t that all there was?
Yes. And, no. With quarterback scrambles and runs that got back to the original line of scrimmage and negative yards attached to sacks, Jacob Sollock “rushed” for negative two yards and the other carry besides Guardiola and Esquibel was Christian Monreal for positive two yards.
Cancel Sollock’s and Monreal’s stats and the total comes to 302 yards combined between all four ball carriers is the same as Esquibel’s and Guardiola’s combined yards.
Warhorse stats
Passing Jacob Sollock 5 of 9 for 51 yards and 1 interception Receiving Sam Guardiola 3-22, Braydon Reyes 1-20, Ayden Leal 1-9 Rushing Gabriel Esquibel 30-162 (5.4), 2 TD; Guardiola 20-140 (7.0), 2 TD; Christian Monreal 1-2; Sollock 8–2.
Team stats
Total yards Dev 353, Uva 181 First downs Dev 22, Uva 10 Rushing Dev 59-302 (5.12), Uva 27-115 (4.26) Passing Dev 5-9-51-1INT; Uva 6-13-1INT Punting Dev 1-26, Uva 3-93 (31.0) Fumbles Dev 2-1, Uva 1-0 Penalties Dev 3-30, Uva 5-40.
Scoring summary
DEV–Samuel Guardiola 1-yard run (Teotimo Stafford kick), 7:33, 1st.
DEV–Gabriel Esquibel 4-yard run (Teotimo Stafford kick), 3:45, 1st.
DEV–Gabriel Esquibel 15-yard run (Teotimo Stafford kick), 6:08, 2nd.
UVA–Abraham Ale 2-yard run (kick failed), 3:24, 2nd.
UVA–Jett Flores 84-yard kickoff return (kick failed), 11:48, 3rd.
UVA–Abraham Ale 48-yard run (pass failed), 11:37, 3rd.
UVA–Devere Willis 13-yard pass from Brodie Carnes (kick failed), 4:40, 3rd.
DEV–Samuel Guardiola 14-yard run (Teotimo Stafford kick), 10:08, 4th.