After a heartbreaking defeat last week, the varsity football team played much better in a hard fought 56-35 loss to undefeated Reagan Friday night at Comalander stadium.
The Rattlers clinched their third consecutive district title with the win and physically wore down the Brahmas defense throughout the game.
MacArthur started the game off on the wrong foot as their first two possessions both ended less than a yard from the end zone, one was a fumble and the other was a turnover on downs. The Brahmas’ offense had a solid night totaling for 563 yards, however, their mistakes made the already tough task of pulling off the upset, even harder.
The defense has been sporadic this season and has struggled to stop the run in most games. Friday was another tough game for them as they gave up 28 points in the first two quarters, and 527 rushing yards in four quarters. Despite allowing 734 total yards, the defense made critical stops in the 3rd and 4th quarters to bring the game back to a 7 point Mac deficit. Then the floodgates opened and Reagan scored three straight touchdowns, all three by running back Marquis Duncan who had the game of his life, rushing for 327 yards and 5 touchdowns, 3 of his touchdowns came from runs of over 50 yards.
With the defense struggling, many fingers can be pointed in all directions, however, senior linebacker and defensive captain Joey Fiel summarizes their problems in one word, “Tackling.”
Positive takeaways from Friday’s game are running back Daijon Williams and receiver Bobby Lepovitz. Daijon remained atop the district rushing leaderboard with his solid 98 yards rushing and 1 touchdown against the formidable Reagan defense that made every attempted run a challenge. Bobby is also among the top receivers in the district, and he was the main target of quarterback Tyler Vitt, as he had 179 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns.
The team faces Roosevelt next week in a must win game in order to make the playoffs. This is a top ten team in the city on paper but in these next two weeks, with the pressure on, we will for the first time this season truly see just how good this MacArthur football team is.
