a fumble for their second ….
a fumble for their second turnover of the season.
With the defense holding the Mustangs in a deadlock, Abbotsford continued to build its lead. Castillo added his third rushing touchdown of the game in the third quarter, running the ball in from 12 yards out. Sophomore Emilio Escalera rounded out the scoring for the evening when he found paydirt in the fourth quarter on a four-yard run.
While Castillo and Fuentes certainly got the bulk of the carries against the Mustangs, the Falcons have the luxury of having several different backs that can take the ball and still be effective. Senior Jacob Hirsch had five carries for 44 yards and Schunk also had five for 11 yards and a touchdown. Escalera ended with four carries for 25 yards and a touchdown and freshmen Chase Boller and Irvin Aguilera each had three carries for 34 and 22 yards respectively. Having many different options out of the backfield is something that will continue to help Abbotsford as the season goes on, allowing them to spell Castillo and Fuentes and still get production.
“Having Jake and Emilio plus [sophomore] Fernando Perez in our backfield takes the workload off of Chrisitan Fuentes and JV Castillo,” Knapmiller said. “They aren’t big guys and we don’t want them carrying the workload until we absolutely need them to.”
Reis led the team in receiving yards, collecting 33 yards and a touchdown on two catches. Senior Brandon Diedrich had one catch for 20 yards and Hirsch, Fuentes, and Schunk also all had one catch each for 14, five, and one yards respectively.
While Abbotsford came away with the victory, there are still some things that Knapmiller says his team needs to work on in the coming weeks.
“I think we made things harder on ourselves on offense than it should have been,” the head coach said when asked about the game overall. “Things we have discussed and practiced didn’t get executed the way we practice them. With speed in the backfield and converting a pile of third down conversions, it covers up some blemishes, but the film doesn’t lie.”
The Falcons will have a chance to clean up some of those issues in their next game against Ladysmith. Abbotsford will take on the Lumberjacks in Ladysmith on September 2, with a start time of 7:00 p.m.
