 |
Photo by Ryan Kennedy Contributing Photographer |
Sophomore Dominique Altamirano tries to block an attempted kill during the T-bird’s loss to Eastern Arizona. |
The Mesa Thunderbirds, in front of a crowd of about 1,000 for homecoming, lost to the Glendale Gauchos 21-13. MCC could not punch the ball in the end zone after four tries starting from the three yard line in the 4th quarter to possibly tie the game with a two point conversion and were never able to get close again.
Latron Kickson’s returned interception off Glendale’s quarterback, Nick Gehrts, with 70 yards for a touchdown, gave MCC it’s first score as the crowd exploded for their homecoming hopefuls.
Robert Dahlk, intercepted two passes during the game, including one that ended a Glendale threat to score, by intercepting the pass in the end zone.
After the interception, Mesa quarterback Ryan Rusler threw a 30 yard touchdown strike to Greg Nielson to make the game 21-13 after the botched extra point.
MCC threatened to tie late in the third quarter, when offensive coordinato, Roger Schenks, called a halfback pass for running back Jeremiah White, to throw. The play was executed and caught for a touchdown, but there was an illegal man down field negating the touchdown. Mesa produced no points from the drive.
Mesa kept plugging away by running Jeremiah White, who rushed 136 yards on the game, including a 52 yard gain that delivered MCC to Glendale’s three yard line as the Mesa fans roared. Mesa tried all four downs to get the ball across the goal line, but was unsuccessful.
On fourth down, inside 2 minutes in the fourth quarter, Glendale went back to punt to MCC. The Glendale punter received the snap and ran for the first down. Glendale expired the time and MCC fell to 3-3 on the season.
Bothering head coach Dan Dunn was the play of the special teams. Mesa started off the game by fumbling the kick-off. Daniel Pompa also missed an extra point to give the special teams more negative attention.
When coach Dunn was asked how he felt about his team’s performance he said “we did better, but we made some mistakes on special teams and I’ll take the blame.”
|
