GARDEH GROVE – Xavier Aviles provided a spark with a little spectacle and the Anaheim defense put theclamps on Bolsa Grande in a 35-18 victory to clinch a historic league championship.
It was the 31st football league championship for Anaheim, the most of any public school in Orange County, and secured the school’s 25th ticket to the Southern Section playoffs.
Aviles started his flash-and-dash in the second quarter of the Tango League contest. Anaheim (7-2, 4-0) was clinging to a 7-6 lead in what was becoming an offensive stalemate. A 15-yard punt gave Anaheim the ball at the Matadors 27-yard line.
After two straight incompletions, Anaheim wide receiver Victor Mejia took a handoff on a sweep then stopped and found Aviles along at the goal line for a 27-yard touchdown pass.
“The turning point was when I caught the first touchdown,” Aviles said. “That just set off the alarms. We had made some mistakes on defense, but we put them in the past, we stepped up and made plays on defense.”
Aviles provided the next big defensive play when Bolsa Grande (4-5, 2-2) was trying to wage an uphill battle, trailing 21-12 and getting the ball at its 10 with 5:49 left in the game. But on second-and-10, linebacker Arturo Velasquez deflected Michael Nguyen’s pass into the hands of Aviles, who turned the interception 10 yards for a touchdown.
Anaheim held the Matadors to 157 yards rushing, but most of that came on two touchdowns from Ray Bell, a 45-yarder in the first quarter and a 40-yard run in the second quarter.
“At first we were having a little trouble with our five down (defensive) linemen, but our coach fixed it later onthe game and we just dominated on defense,” said nose tackle Derrick Bojorquez.
He had four tackles for loss and a couple of other stops for no gain. He gave Bolsa Grande some different looks, playing at times over the center like a traditional nose tackle and at other times like an inside linebacker.
“We knew they were going to come hard, but we had a plan for them and we worked it,” Bojorquez said.
Nguyen threw for 154 yards, but a third of that came on a 56-yard TD pass to Jacob Ortiz in the fourth quarter to keep the Matadors within 10 points.
