YC continues to roll

Ernie Samaniego was stood up by two defenders after a reception near midfield in the second quarter.

But his legs kept churning until he slipped through and broke away for a long touchdown.

The Yuma Catholic senior wide receiver/defensive back did a lot of running Friday night.

Samaniego hauled in five catches for 197 yards, with TD receptions of 88 and 54 yards, and on defense he returned an interception 43 yards to paydirt to help the Shamrocks to a 58-6 trouncing of Phoenix-Bourgade Catholic at Ricky Gwynn Stadium.

"The last couple of games I had a couple of dropped balls," Samaniego said. "I had a couple drops tonight, but I guess I made up for it with a couple touchdowns.

"That's the best game of the season for me, and as a team we played really well defensively."

YC quarterback Matt Inman completed 15-of-29 attempts for 319 yards and three touchdowns in only three quarters of work.

Inman now has 93 career touchdown passes. The all-time state mark stands at 94.

"That's why we threw at the end (of the third quarter)," YC coach Rhett Stallworth said. "There's no question that the game was in-hand, but we were going to give him through the third quarter to go ahead and get a couple more balls in, and get him close to breaking the yardage mark, too."

Already leading 30-6, YC got the ball in good field position after a shanked punt on its first series of the second half. On the second play from scrimmage, Inman connected with Samaniego on a 21-yard strike, but Samaniego lost a fumble inside the Bourgade 10-yard line.

Bourgade ran four plays, before Samaniego made up for his miscue with a 43-yard interception return for a score.

"He did a really good job," Stallworth said of Samaniego. "We needed some guys to catch the ball and he stepped up."

The Yuma Catholic defense only allowed a Bourgade drive into Shamrocks' territory once.

Jared Peach came up with two sacks for YC, and linebacker Bobby Rodriguez had a 55-yard interception return for a touchdown.

The Shamrocks' first 14 points of the second half were scored on defense.

YC running back Ed Harris rushed for 70 yards on seven carries - all in the first half - with touchdown runs of 11 and 9 yards.

Cody Alexander caught a screen pass from Inman in the first quarter and turned it into a 6-yard touchdown for YC's first trip into the end zone.

The Shamrocks were without injured starters running back Austin Rodriguez and offensive lineman/defensive lineman Nick Waterford.

"The good thing was a lot of people were filling in gaps for us," Stallworth said. "We had some injured people and the other guys stepped up."

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Derrik Miller can be reached at
dmiller@yumasun.com or 782-6520.