Leyden shuts out Addison Trail
If only the second half were played as well as the first half for Addison Trail on Friday night.
The Blazers trailed Leyden 6-0 at halftime but gave up 20 points in a seven-minute span in the third quarter as they fell to Leyden 26-0.
In the first half the Blazers did a nice job containing Leyden's Angel Maldonado, who has rushed for more than 2,000 yards this season, as he was able to only break one long run, a 59-yard score where he was stopped in the backfield, broke numerous tackles and then broke free and ran down the left sideline for the score.
"He is a very good runner," Addison Trail coach Paul Parpet said. "He popped a couple of runs on us in the second half. We went toe-to-toe with them in the first half. But a couple of those runs in the second half really broke our backs."
In the second half Maldonado scored 3 touchdowns on runs of 45, 11 and 29. For the game he had 25 carries for 311 yards and was taken out of the game with 3:30 left in the third quarter. Those 311 yards are a personal best for Maldonado, and those 4 touchdowns now give him 22 on the season.
"This is the third time this season that I have broken the single-game rushing record," Maldonado said. "I had a number in my head that I wanted to get in a game and that number was 300. Tonight I got it. I would trade in all these yards for some wins in the playoffs, though."
The Blazers (3-6, 3-3) had a hard time getting anything going offensively as the defense was on the field for long stretches as Maldonado pounded away on the defensive front four. When Addison Trail had the ball, it was only able to muster 165 yards of offense and had 130 yards rushing on 42 carries against Leyden (7-2, 5-1).
In the first half the Blazers were fresh and had a swarming defense that attacked Maldonado when he got the ball. As senior Frank Cervantes said after the game, they just wanted the game and looked at this game as their playoff game since they will not be playing in the playoffs this season. Also, the seniors knew it was there last game they will all be on the same field together on the same team.
"We came out really strong today with it being Senior Night and all," Cervantes said. "We wanted this game so bad. We knew this was going to be the last game we will all be playing together. It was frustrating watching him (Maldonado) run through our defense. We talked all week about wrapping up on tackles. That didn't happen tonight."