In two games, the Anzar High football team has experienced both ends of the emotional spectrum. When the Hawks beat traditional 8-man power Kings Christian in their season-opener, they were on Cloud Nine. On Friday night, however, they came crashing back to reality in a 58-6 loss to visiting Fresno Christian, which is one of the top 8-man teams in the state.
“Fresno Christian is a very strong team,” Anzar coach Frank Reyes said. “They have us size-wise, fundamentally-wise and speed-wise. It was an uphill battle from the start.”
Especially after the Hawks failed to convert two fourth-down plays in their own territory on their first two possessions of the game, both of which the Eagles (2-1) would later score on in taking a 28-0 lead after the first quarter. Reyes said had this been a league game, he would have thought twice about the decision.
However, the first-year Anzar coach wanted to see how his team would respond in a fourth-down situation.
“This being a non-league game, I wanted to show we had confidence to move the ball in that situation, to let it be a character builder,” Reyes said. “But we didn’t do anything to help us. We put ourselves behind he 8-ball with turnovers.”
Anzar committed five turnovers (four fumbles and an interception), leading to four Fresno Christian touchdowns. The Hawks also fumbled the ball on five other occasions only to recover them.
“It’s a learning experience,” Reyes said.
The Eagles had 356 yards of total offense to the Hawks’ 132. Anzar gained over 300 yards of offense in the win over Kings Christian, but its running game was ground to a halt against a superior Fresno Christian defense.
“We were hoping to get a little more of a push from the offensive line,” Reyes said.
Anzar scored its lone TD when Julio Mora took a handoff and reversed course to the middle of the field for a 28-yard run with 35 seconds remaining. Marcos Galvan led the Hawks with 40 yards rushing on 10 carries. However, Anzar couldn’t contain a potent Eagles offense that was led by quarterback Tyler Breedlove, who was a near perfect 11-of-13 passing for 190 yards and three TDs to go along with 64 yards rushing, including TD runs of 53 and 7 yards.
Despite the loss, Anzar enters next week’s league opener against Pinewood feeling good about its chances to compete in the Mission Trail League. Reyes was encouraged by the fact that even in the midst of a blowout, his players didn’t mope, pout or give up—they literally played hard and kept their spirits up until the very end.
Reyes used virtually his entire 30-man roster, and gave notable credit to offensive lineman Cody Fisher, quarterback Marc Gil and linebackers Rhett McCormick and Andrew Huaracha.
Game Box
Fresno 28 8 16 0—58
Anzar 0 0 0 6—6
Scoring summary
F—Cowger 6 pass from Breedlove (pass failed)
F—Villines 34 run (Loper pass from Breedlove)
F—Villines 51 pass from Breedlove (Loper run)
F—Breedlove 53 run (pass failed)
F—Breedlove 7 run (Breedlove pass from Leblanc)
F—Loper 19 run (Ayers pass from Breedlove)
F—Ayers 40 pass from Breedlove (Melendez run)
F—Lacruix 21 pass from Lebanc (pass failed)
A—Mora 28 run (run failed)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING (carries-yards): FRESNO—Breedlove 8-64, Wade 9-37, Loper 1-(-1), Villines 2-36, Melendez 4-13, Reis 1-(-6), LeBlanc 1-2. Totals 26-145. ANZAR—Mora 5-30, Banuelos 6-26, Jimenez 9-23, Galvan 10-40, Huaracha 3-20, Mohssin 1-(-1), Conrath 3-(-13). Totals 37-125. PASSING (comp-att-yds-td-int): FRESNO—Breedlove 11-13-190-3-0, LeBlanc 1-3-21-1-0. ANZAR—Conrath 1-3-7-0-1, Banuelos 0-1-0-0-0. RECEIVING (catches-yards): FRESNO—Loper 5-46, Ayers 2-62, Vanderlinden 1-11, Cowger 2-20, Villines 1-51, LaCroix 1-21. Totals 12-211. ANZAR—Jimenez 1-7. TOTAL OFFENSE (rush-pass-total): FRESNO 145-211-356. ANZAR 125-7-132.
