Half Enough for Moorpark in the Quarterfinals, 28-9

It’s been relatively quiet the past week at Moorpark High.

It got significantly louder Friday night.

The Musketeers defeated St. Bernard, 28-9, and advanced to the Division X semifinals for the first time in school history.

Three third-quarter touchdowns erased a 3-0 halftime deficit by the Musketeers, who play Carpinteria in the semifinals next week.

Carpenteria has defeated Moorpark 50 consecutive times dating to the 1920s.

Moorpark has been outscored, 1,700 points to 270 and has been shut out 27 times in the series, which Carpenteria leads, 53-3.

The series was broken off after the 1991 season.

“We came to mash and that’s what we did,” Moorpark Coach Ron Wilford said. “We’re ecstatic.”

Moorpark’s mantra for the night--Kick the Door Down--was put into action in the third quarter.

After a silent first half, the second-seeded Musketeers (11-1) opened the quarter with a drive that lasted 5:39 and ended with Shane Brogdon’s five-yard touchdown run for a 7-3 lead.

Moorpark, which was allowing 8.3 points per game, did its thing, forcing a poor punt and an interception by the Vikings, both of which led to short Moorpark drives for touchdowns.

“The door’s been knocked down, kicked in, whatever you want to say,” Brogdon said.

In recent weeks, the activity level at Moorpark had been high.

The Musketeers won the Frontier League championship with a down-to-the-wire, 7-6 victory over Nordhoff two weeks ago.

The week before that, two Moorpark students were arrested for allegedly setting fire to a storage shed that damaged several thousand dollars’ worth of football equipment.

But this past week, you could almost hear a football drop during practice.

“Nice and quiet,” Wilford said.

That would be an accurate description of the Musketeers’ first-half offense, which totaled two missed field goal attempts by Mark Weaver.

The Musketeers allowed 22 rushing yards in 21 carries when they defeated St. Bernard in the fourth week of the regular season, 17-0.

St. Bernard changed its offensive line personnel since that game and it showed on the opening drive.

The Vikings executed a balanced attack, converted three fourth downs and scored on a 30-yard field goal by Miguel Carranza.

But the Musketeers tightened up after that, not allowing St. Bernard past its 37-yard line until midway through the fourth quarter.

“We stuffed them in the first half, but they stuffed us in the second half,” St. Bernard Coach Greg Dixon said.

St. Bernard finished with 69 yards rushing in 25 carries, 43 of the yards in the fourth quarter.

Art Garcia had 101 yards and a touchdown in 17 carries for Moorpark.

Brogdon finished with 39 yards and two touchdowns in 11 carries.

The Musketeers extended two school records with their 11th victory of the season and their 11th consecutive victory.

Jamie Brooks completed 10 of 21 passes for 75 yards and had a pass intercepted for St. Bernard.

Chad Willis of Moorpark completed five of seven passes for 90 yards.