T-Birds Use Stingy Defense While Offense Scores 21 2nd Half Points to Top Eastern Arizona, 24-17
Curt Ashcraft
MESA, AZ – In a tale of two halves for two completely different offenses, the Mesa Community College football team (1-1, 1-1 WSFL) stormed back from a two-touchdown deficit to defeat the Eastern Arizona College Gila Monsters (2-1, 0-1 WSFL) by a score of 24-17 on Saturday night at John D. Riggs Stadium in Mesa.
After falling behind the Gila Monsters and their near 200 yards of offense in the first half, the Thunderbirds followed the likes of sophomore Rathen Ricedorff and freshman C.J. Leggett for almost 300 yards of total offense by themselves and three touchdowns.
The defense, lead by sophomore linebacker Amonai Itaaehau, did their job as well; holding Eastern Arizona to less than 30 yards of offense in the second half and even intercepting sophomore quarterback Jonathan Thomas late in the game.
At the start of the game, the rushing attack of Eastern Arizona controlled the tempo.
After the Thunderbirds fumbled the opening kickoff and turned it over to the Gila Monsters, it took no more than four minutes before sophomore Clifford Lowe ran into the end zone for the first score of the game, giving Eastern Arizona the early lead, 7-0.
The Thunderbirds were able close the deficit to 7-3 when freshman Luis Bustillos connected on a 24-yard field goal, but it didn't take long for the Gila Monsters to answer right back when freshman Tyquan Watson punched it in from two yards out to increase their lead to 14-3.
A 40-yard field goal from freshman Patrick LeCorre in the second quarter extended the Eastern Arizona lead to 17-3 going into halftime.
After a sluggish first half, the Thunderbirds turned the tide in the third quarter when Ricedorff found freshman Darius Aguirre on a seven-yard pass that resulted in Mesa's first touchdown of the game.
Now only trailing by a touchdown, the Thunderbirds tied the game up just three minutes later at 17-17 when Leggett crossed the goal line for the first time in his Mesa career.
With the score deadlocked at 17-17 with only 7:46 remaining in the game, the Thunderbirds took their first lead of the night when Ricedorff connected with freshman Skylor Clinton on a 13-yard touchdown pass that gave Mesa a 24-17 lead.
The Gila Monsters threatened to tie the game up in the final minutes of play, but a timely interception by sophomore Sean Eremia and a last second sack by Itaaehau secured the 24-17 victory for the Thunderbirds.
The Thunderbirds will look to win their second-straight game of the season when they head north to Utah next Saturday to take on Snow College in yet another Western States Football League contest. Opening kickoff is set for 6:00 p.m. MST.
