Muscarella eases his coach’s nerves with standout game

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In his post-game talk with the troops, Newbury Park Coach George Hurley said there wasn’t a doubt in his mind his boys would beat Valencia in the Northern Division quarterfinals on Friday night. But after I got a hold of him for a one-on-one interview, he changed his tune considerably.

‘I was really scared there for a while,’ Hurley said. ‘It was looking bad, especially after they scored that last TD on us. But what can I say? Everybody put up a remarkable performance and we came out on top.’

Thanks to the heroics of sophomore Phillip Muscarella, Newbury Park will be playing in the semifinals against Hart. Muscarella kicked his first-ever field goal, a 32-yarder with 23 seconds left, to lift third-seeded Newbury Park to a 29-28 victory over Valencia. Muscarella, pictured, practically put on a one-man show in the final two minutes, catching passes of 11, 25, 20 and 5 yards to put the Panthers on the Valencia 20 before booting the winning kick.

‘Everybody did great. It was a total team effort,’ said Muscarella, who finished with nine catches for 196 yards and three TDs. ‘We were never really far behind and we never gave up.’

It was a phenomenal performance for a player who’s finally starting to get more notice for his play-making abilities rather than his trademark hairdo.

Still, this game wasn’t just about Muscarella’s dominance. It was a sloppy contest with six interceptions and Valencia had just one first down in the second half. The Panthers also failed to score on three of its four trips inside the red zone in the final 24 minutes.

Nevertheless, the better team definitely won tonight.

-- Austin Knoblauch