Murrieta Valley Prevails Against Former League Foe Temescal Canyon

Coach Greg Ireland's Murrieta Valley Nighthawks have a three-pronged offensive scoring approach: running, passing and kicking.

When they're not relying on their trusty junior quarterback Andrew Blake to find a receiver down field, the Nighthawks have used a dual rushing approach to get the job done.

Going into this fourth game of the season, senior Jack Magpuaso had 295 yards on 44 carries while teammate junior Jacob Augustine had 263 yards on 43 carries, according to Maxpreps.com.

After junior kicker Logan Matthews learned he had stress fractures in his back and would be taking at least three weeks off, Ireland knew he needed to get a replacement. He recruited Victor Trejo about a month ago from the school's soccer team.

Victor played a role in Friday night's win over Temescal Canyon, 27-21, after having been brough up from the Nighthawk JV squad earlier in the week.

At the end of the first quarter, the visiting Nighthawks held a 7-0 lead.  With 6:57 left in the second quarter, the Titans tied it up, 7-7. With 2:18 to go before the half, Victor punched through a field goal to make it 10-7, a score that would hold up to end the first half.

As the second half unfolded, the Nighthawks would take advantage again, scoring a touchdown to make it 17-7 with 6:37 remaining in the third quarter.  In the fourth quarter, the Titans closed the gap with a touchdown of their own to make it 17-14 at 10:27 to go.

The Nighthawks quickly answered with another touchdown with 9:27 remaining in the game to make it 24-14. Three minutes later, Murrieta Valley added some insurance with a field goal to make the score 27-14 at the 6:05 mark.

Another three minutes later, the Titans would close the gap to 27-21, but that was as close as they would get.

Weighing in on the win, Ireland said, "It's just surviving--this game--because when you play Temescal Canyon, it's going to be a war."

"They're in the trenches and they're going to keep pounding and they do it to everybody successfully so I'm proud of our kids for justing in there and perservering," he added.

Lloyd Wailai, senior center and one of four team captains, weighed in on the first half: "We came out slow but we picked it up during the second half.  We knew what we were doing wrong but we stayed together as a team and had fun."

Next week the Nighthawks face the Elsinore Tigers during their annual Homecoming game. The Tigers are 4-0 following a 26-7 shellacking of Temecula Valley on Friday.