Guards notch 20-14 win in OT
EL MONTE —The Bellarmine-Jefferson High football team came, saw and, in overtime, conquered Mountain View on Friday night.
A three-yard touchdown run by Eric Agaverdyan on the first possession of the extra period propelled the Guards to a 20-14 nonleague road victory at Mountain View.
“We had something to prove tonight. We had a terrible game against Viewpoint,” said Bell-Jeff Coach Rolando Aguirre, who said he worked his players hard all week after falling, 62-20, a week ago. “We had a crippled team last week, so it was nice to have everyone back at full strength.”
One of the players at full strength was tailback Joshua Martinez, who ran all over the Vikings’ defense. Martinez finished the game with 130 yards rushing and two touchdowns.
Martinez credited the hard work the team put in at practice all week for the effort against the Vikings (3-2).
“We wanted to get a win,” said Martinez, who recognized his offensive line for his success. “After those two previous losses, this was a big wake-up call.”
Martinez’s coach was actually more impressed with how his star player did on the other side of the ball.
“What [Martinez] did on defense, he makes up for anything on offense,” Aguirre said. “He and [Michael] Gomez are the best tacklers on the team, and both did a great job.”
After neither side was able to score in the first quarter, Martinez got the scoring started with a three-yard touchdown run in the second, and the Guards (3-3) took a 7-0 lead into the half.
They increased their lead to 14-0 early in the third quarter on another three-yard scoring run by Martinez.
However, several turnovers and a blocked punt allowed the Vikings to climb right back into the game.
“We wanted to lose that game,” said Aguirre, who appeared disgusted at the amount of turnovers committed by his team. “That game should not have been that close. We kept giving them back the ball.”
Both of Mountain View’s touchdowns were scored by tailback Jose Zamorra, who had a good rushing night himself. He ran for 121 yards and had scoring runs of four and 15 yards.
Despite the offensive mistakes that allowed the Vikings to get back into the game, Martinez said the Guards should take a lot of positives from the performance.
“We worked hard, came out here and played our best game ever,” Martinez said.