Sports
Murrieta Mesa Clings to 28-26 Win vs. West Valley
Murrieta Mesa coach Justin Schaeffer and his Ram assistant coaches were on edge at halftime, not wanting their players to get cocky with their 28-6 lead.
The Murrieta Mesa coaches warned their team, and themselves, at halftime -- a 28-6 lead spelled danger.
Hemet West Valley's Chris Anderson and Kishawn Holmes combined for 279 rushing yards to nearly spoil the win.
The outcome wasn't a sure thing until the last minute of the game, when the Rams defense stopped a two-point conversion attempt, as Mesa pulled out the 28-26 home victory.
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When asked if there was any one particular part of the game for which he was extremely pleased, coach Justin Schaeffer's answer? "The win! We're 1-0. We've never been 1-0 so obviously we're off to a good start."
The Rams went 2-8 last year, their first year playing varsity ball.
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"We've got a lot of stuff we've got to work on," said Schaeffer. "Hopefully our kids are going to learn from this and hopefully they're going to understand that it's a four-quarter ballgame."
Schaeffer was pleased with his team's play in the first half. It was the tendency the players had thinking they'd had this one "sealed up" that they'll need to work on.
"They've got to learn how to close it out and we're going to talk about that," said the coach.
The Mustangs chewed away at Mesa's lead. With 2:11 left in the third quarter, junior running back Anderson scored a touchdown and they were successful on a two-point conversion to make it 28-14.
Anderson again scored from short yardage when he took a handoff around left end to make it 28-26 with 1:58 on the clock. The Mustangs were unsuccessful on a critical two-point conversion play.
The Rams held on from there to seal the win.
Schaeffer was impressed with the adjustments the Mustang coaching staff made during halftime. "They came out in the second half and they were ready to go," he said.
Ram quarterback Chase Chambers threw for 182 yards and was 20 for 42 with two rushing TDs and two passing TDs (to Davian Neitz and Gilbert Toves).
"We were unstoppable [in the first half]," Chambers said. "[In the] second half I think we got a little big-headed and we just didn't really play well. Everyone was getting frustrated but we'll fix that tomorrow," said the junior quarterback.
The Tahquitz (Hemet) Titans pay a visit to the Rams' field next Friday with an 0-2 record. Tahquitz' losses have been against Murrieta Valley (34-13 on Sept. 2) and against Temescal Canyon (48-39 on Sept. 9).
