Two Rivers’ Dominating Rushing Attack Leads to Victory Over Simley
Either Jayden Kinsel Arredondo or Drew Altavilla had a role in all of Two Rivers’ five touchdowns on Friday night. However, both players acknowledge that the true heroes of the game were the unsung members of the team – the offensive line. Behind a dominating performance from the line, Two Rivers ran for 270 of its nearly 350 total yards in a 35-20 win at Simley.
According to Altavilla, the three returning seniors, including 350-pound Dayven Clairmont, and two new starters, are the heart and soul of the Warriors. “They just want to run people over all of the time,” Altavilla said. “They keep everybody happy. They’re a family of one every day in practice, they back each other up all the time.” Delfino Mancha, who ran for 98 yards and routinely set the Warriors up with good field position with his kick and punt returns, added that the offensive line is the leader of the team. “They are the leaders of our team. If they’re not here, we really don’t have what we have,” Mancha said.
A Powerful 1-2 Punch
Mancha and Arredondo, who ran for a team-high 111 yards, form a formidable 1-2 combination. Despite their size difference – Mancha is listed at 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds, while Arredondo is listed at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds – they complement each other well. “He’s a big boy, he’s going to be punching it. I think I’m big, but realistically, I need to bounce to the outside sometimes. A littler guy coming in, they don’t expect it, so I lower my shoulder, always kind of works,” Mancha said.
Simley, on the other hand, focused on an air attack, with Christian Urbina throwing for 146 yards and three touchdowns, two to Justin Runge. Seven Spartans caught passes, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Warriors’ dominating rushing attack. “We had more time in the pocket, we were getting off the ball faster, our receivers, than last week (a 45-7 loss at Minneapolis North), and we were more mentally there,” Urbina said.
A Key Sequence in the Game
The game can be summed up in an early third quarter sequence. After forcing Simley to punt, Mancha returned a punt to the Spartans’ 48-yard line. The junior followed up with a pair of rushes to the 33 before Arredondo scored from the 17 four plays later, leaping over one defender, for a 35-12 Two Rivers lead. Urbina threw a 3-yarder to Vincent Yang that, combined with the 2-point conversion, kept it a two-score game.
Two Rivers took nearly eight minutes off the clock on its 12-play opening drive that ended with a 27-yard Lonnie West touchdown reception on fourth down. West also had a touchdown reception in the second quarter. Taking advantage of a Warriors fumble deep in its own end, a 16-yard touchdown pass from Urbina to Runge got the Spartans on the board on the opening play of the second quarter.
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