Crescenta Valley has no answer for Muir

PASADENA — The Crescenta Valley High football team’s goal was to limit Muir’s big plays in Friday night’s Pacific League opener.

But the Mustangs were too explosive, too fast and too overwhelming for the Falcons.

Muir scored four touchdowns on the first play of four drives, including 96- and 54-yard scores by Andreece Brown, en route to running away with a 36-0 home victory.

“We didn’t play well at all,” Falcons Coach Paul Schilling said. “We’re really disappointed. It’s not like we lost to a poor team.

“That’s Muir football. They’re fast.”

Muir (1-3) ruined Crescenta Valley’s plans, even though both teams started with sub-par first quarters in which they combined to total 60 yards and two first downs, both by the Falcons.

One play into the second quarter, momentum quickly changed.

On first down from its own 46 yard-line, Brown took a swing pass from Joshua Muema-Washington, made one Falcon defender miss, evaded another, and sprinted down the left sideline for a touchdown.

The play took 13 seconds and the Falcons (2-2) were down, 7-0.

Five minutes later, the Mustangs took advantage of a 40-yard punt return from Tony Claxton to the Falcons’ 18 yard-line.

Taeon Mason scored on Muir’s first play from scrimmage following the return, an 18-yard touchdown run that gave his team a 14-0 halftime lead.

Teammate Tyshawn Goodman scored on a near-identical play to cap the scoring in the fourth quarter, taking a handoff 19 yards for a score on the first play of a drive, again. Two minutes earlier, Brown scored his second touchdown on a 96-yard run through a deflated Falcon defense.

The Falcons defense was on the field for just 18 minutes, but allowed 374 yards of total offense.

Muema-Washington was 15 of 23 for 183 yards and Brown rushed nine times for 124 yards.

“We worked all week on not giving up big plays,” Schilling said. “It was our goal and we couldn’t do that.”

His team could not do much on offense either.

The Falcons managed just 163 yards of total offense, and replaced starting quarterback Ben Rees with Joe Torres in the fourth quarter. Torres took his team down inside of Muir’s 5, but could not score on a suffocating Mustang defense that produced four sacks and disrupted the Falcon offense. Rees was four of 15 for 35 yards and an interception. Torres completed three of eight passes for 57 yards, and Falcon running back William Wang was limited to 49 yards in 16 carries.

“We’re going to live and die off our defense,” said Muir Coach John Hardy, whose team’s other score came when Lamarr McDaniels caught a 20-yard pass from Muema-Washington, capping a five-play, 48-yard drive that took less than two minutes.

“Our defense’s job is to keep us in every game.”