Mountain View gets back at rival Evergreen

Whenever a team loses a heartbreaker to its arch rival, it can lead to a long year before the next meeting.

So imagine how the Mountain View Thunder were feeling.

It had been more than 17 months since Evergreen snapped Mountain View’s 12-year win streak in the schools’ rivalry.

“Last year didn’t sit well with any of us,” junior lineman Gavin James-Dues said. “They took our streak. So we were going to make it happen and take our streak back.”

And the Thunder did it in classic Mountain View style, by winning the battle up front and running the ball to a 35-14 win over the Plainsmen on Tuesday night.

“We were just trying to pound the ball down, just execute our business, everyone do their own jobs and we just executed on the field,” James-Dues said.

The Thunder ran the ball 53 of its 57 plays for 371 yards, led by quarterback Riley McCarthy’s 169 yards on 20 carries.

“That was kind of the play, just to grind it out,” Mountain View coach Adam Mathieson said. “Their offense is super explosive, so we were trying to keep them off the field. It made our offense maybe a little bit bland tonight, but we just felt like we needed to limit their possessions.”

McCarthy’s 7-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter gave the Thunder a 7-0 lead. Then McCarthy had two of his three completions of the night on a drive right before halftime, including a 21-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Martin that gave the Thunder a 14-0 lead.

Evergreen had one of its longest possessions of the night before the Mountain View defense turned the Plainsmen away at the Mountain View 21.

Then the Thunder line took over. Mountain View drove 72 yards on nine plays – all runs – with Valike Tamakloe scoring on a 4-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter to go up 21-0.

After Evergreen got on the board, the Thunder responded again, with McCarthy rushing five times for 60 yards, capping the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run that put Mountain View back in control at 28-7.

“You could feel it at the line of scrimmage,” Mathieson said. “We’ve got some good players up front and they’re starting to gel. Our offense is pretty rhythmic when it comes to the pulling and stuff, so it takes sometimes three, four weeks before you feel like you start to gel.”

Tamakloe finished with 77 yards run 10 carries. Zak Gable had 57 yards on 11 carries and freshman Porter Drake added 40 yards.

Evergreen quarterback JJ Woodin passed for 273 yards, but much of that game late as the Plainsmen tried to rallied.

Tejuan Conde caught six passes for 132 yards and Jonathan Landry caught six passes for 98 yards with one touchdown and one rushing touchdown.

MOUNTAIN VIEW 35, EVERGREEN 14

Evergreen 0 0 0 14—14

Mtn. View 0 14 0 21—35

Second quarter

MV — Riley McCarthy 7 run (Jude Mullette kick)

MV — Jacob Martin 21 pass from Martin (Mullette kick)

Fourth quarter

MV — Valike Tamakloe 4 run (Mullette kick)

E — Jonathan Landry 7 run (Ely Del Angel kick)

MV — McCarthy 1 run (Mullette kick)

E — Jonathan Landry 57 pass from JJ Woodin (Del Angel kick)

MV — Tamakloe 1 run (Mullette kick)

Individual statistics

RUSHING — Evergreen: Kyle Norton 11-57, Woodin 7-21, Landry 2-2, O’Shay Jackson 8-26, Jonathan Simon 1-(-7). Mountain View: McCarthy 20-169, Zak Gable 11-57, Tamakloe 10-77, Porter Drake 7-40, Kevin Chen 5-28.

PASSING — Evergreen: Woodin 17-32-0-273. Mountain View: McCarthy 3-4-0-46.

RECEIVING — Evergreen: Tejuan Conde 6-132, Landry 6-98, Simon 1-4, Domonic Bolds 2-17, Hadyn Marcella 1-3, Jordan Peters 1-9. Mountain View: Kevin Chen 2-25, Jacob Martin 1-21.