It was one of those nights where nothing seemed to go right for the Hurricane Tigers. The result was disastrous as Hurricane’s season came to an abrupt end at the hands of Juan Diego Friday night in a 38-0 drubbing by the Soaring Eagle.
These two teams had met thrice previously, with each game coming down to the closing seconds. But the Juan Diego defense made sure that didn’t happen again, holding the Tigers to just 227 yards, barely 3 yards per play. Meanwhile, the Soaring Eagle struck for 24 first-half points, collecting points on four of its six first-half possessions.
It didn’t start out as a blowout. Juan Diego opened the game with a scoring drive, with Jessie Springer catching an 18-yard TD pass from Nick Markosian. The Tigers turned around and matched that drive by going 60 yards and inside the Soaring Eagle 20-yard line. But on fourth-and-short, Juan Diego’s defense stuffed the Tigers, forcing a turnover on downs.
The Soaring Eagle then marched down and notched a field goal of 25 yards by Andrew Montoya, making it 10-0 early in the second quarter.
After a Hurricane punt, Juan Diego scored again, making it 17-0 after a 27-yard run by Markosian with 5:13 to go in the half. Then disaster struck as Hurricane bobbled a punt snap and gave the Soaring Eagle the ball at the Tigers 2-yard line.
Two plays later, Chase Williams punched it in from a yard out to make it 24-0 with 2:19 to go in the first half.
Hurricane tried to make some noise in the third quarter, marching deep into Juan Diego territory. But again the Soaring Eagle held on fourth-and-short, forcing the Tigers to come away empty-handed again.
Two fourth-quarter TDs (after a brief power outage at the field) would salt the game away for Juan Diego, which is now 12-0 and headed to the state semifinals.
The Tigers, who finish the year 9-2, did get a 117-yard day out of fullback Jared Edwards. But the rest of the team only managed another 110 yards altogether. Williams and Markosian combined for 282 rushing yards and three TDs.
The shutout is Hurricane’s first since the 2007 playoffs when the Tigers lost 6-0 to Delta in the first round.
Boxscore: hurjd12
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