Last night the Mustangs football team overcame the Pomona Panthers 20-23 despite being down 12-0 after the first quarter.

     Late in the second quarter Reilly Hauptman came up with a 50 yard run to score first for the Mustangs.

     “In the first half we didn’t have any breaks or any field position,” said coach Loyd. “But during halftime I told them we’re only down by five, let’s just get control of it.”

     Later in the 4^th quarter, Jakob Buys coverted on a 64 yard run to give the Mustangs the lead. Shortly after the Mustangs special teams came up with a blocked punt on the 15 yard line. Jeff Grenfell made a one yard touchdown run, and his brother Chad kicked the extra point to make the score 20-12.

     However, the Panthers did not give up easily. They responded with a 25 yard pass reception, and a two point conversion to tie the game up, late in the fourth quarter. But, with 6.9 seconds left in the game, Chad Grenfell saved the day with a 23 yard field goal to make the final score 23-20.

     “It’s a good excitement, we won league today and that’s big for our school. [It’s] our first year in 5A, so were taking it to them.” Jeff Grenfell said after the game. “This may even feel better than the A-West win because it meant something more.”

Madison Gomer

Fresh Face of 2009

Kaitlin Sorensen

     At the start of the 2009 fall sports season, RV is once again ready to show its talents in athletics. The girls’ cross country team, has gotten off to a good start with many new and talented runners. Madison Gomer, a freshman this year, has already shown to be a huge talent in the sport.

     The girls’ team is stacked with talented and experienced runners from all four classes, led by senior captains Ashley Trujillo and Brittany Vermilyea.

     “I think that the team is good and it’s a young team,” Gomer said.

      Coach Jeff Gomer’s daughter says, “I do feel a little bit of pressure to perform, but it’s kind of expected.”

     At practice the team usually runs four or five miles daily. But on some days, practice can be longer.

      “We’ve had a few hard practices, but I think that when we run to Quaker and back, it’s hard because it’s like seven miles,” Gomer said.  

     When it comes to meets, the runners compete at different distances. Their focus is on the other runners in front of them. To stay focused and avoid monotony, runners will try to keep their energy up. “When I’m running I sometimes think of songs,” Gomer says with a laugh.

     Like any athlete, it’s important for her to take care of her body the day of a meet.

     “On race days, I don’t drink as much water,” Gomer said.

     This season, Madison Gomer has shown RV that she is full of talent and here to stay.

At the girl’s first meet on Sept. 4, she came in first for the RV team and 49^th overall.   Gomer is also surrounded by other talented runners who have started off the season well.

     Trujillo came in 3^rd for Ralston Valley and sophomore Anna Corman came in 6^th for the mustangs at the same meet.

                The Mustangs have a big tournament ahead of them. Coach Barker said, “There are a lot of great teams, we would have to shoot well to place in the top 5.” He also said, “It has been a big accomplishment for those seniors. They had never even been to a regional tournament.”

                Ryan Finnefrock was very optimistic about his opportunity at the tournament. When asked about his chances he said “I think it’s anyone’s game. It’s a two day season right now. Anything can happen!”

                Good luck to the Mustang golfers who play in the two day tournament on Monday and Tuesday.

The mustangs relished the fact that they were able to rain on Standleys homecoming parade, but still can’t be happy about the way they played. They won the game yes(21-7) but penalties, fumbles, and other difficulties seemed inevitable that night for the mustangs. Ralston Valleys turnovers were the most obvious mistakes, allowing Standley Lake to stay in the game, but the mustangs defense was able to hold. The offensive line’s blocking was consistently good for the whole game, but the mustangs offense could not finish their drives. It wasn’t all bad for RV, the short run game was effective and consistent and multiple long plays (80 yard run and a 30 yard pass) allowed the offense to score. The mustangs should have managed a better win against a weak Standley Lake team. Perhaps one of the reasons is the absence of key players on offense and defense. David Jurney the leading tackler the week before against Cherokee Trail was only on the field  for ten plays. Robert Wasinger,Tanyan Farley,and Sean Rockwood also all had minimal touches on offense. The mustangs needed and deserved this win but will definetly be looking to play better in the weeks to come.

When the game was first released in the 1990′s John Madden himself was the only person to appear on the cover. But in a changing market with the Playstation 2 and the Xbox about to be released EA Sports changed their marketing. Instead of putting only John Madden on the cover of the video game they put one of the best NFL running backs on it; Eddie George of the Tennessee Titans. And the curse was born

“Im not supersticious. But i know how you guys like say it’s bad luck to get on the cover and everything,” Eddie George told ESPN in an interview.

If you look at George’s regular season stats that season then you could make the argument that the curse does not exist. But fast forward to January 2001 when the Titans played the Baltimore Ravens in the divisional round of the playoffs and see what happened. A routine NFL catch went right through Goerge’s hands and into Baltimore’s Ray Lewis’ hands for an interception and a touchdown. It was the deciding play in the first home playoff loss in Tennessee Titans history. Next up for the curse to take down. Daunte Culpepper. Quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings.

“I’m not one to beleive in Jinx’s and stuff like that. You know if stuff happens it happens,” Culpepper said.

So guess what happened. Culpepper threw for almost 4,000 yards and 33 touchdowns the previous season. But as the cover boy for Madden he threw only 14 touchdowns to 13 interceptions and missed the final four games of the season due to an injury.

“I dont think that there is a John Madden curse,” Marshall Faulk said. He was next as he was on the cover of Madden 2003. Faulk had 2,000 yards in four consecutive seasons. But then the 2002 year came around and the Rams started out 0-5 and Faulk who was hurt all season only got ten starts.

Michael Vick was next up for Madden NFL 2004. He broke his leg that year and missed eleven games. Oh and he also went to prison a few years later.

Madden 2005 decided to put a Defensive player on the cover with the guy who might have brought the jinx to life against the Titans in January of 2001 when he intercepted the pass that went through Eddie George’s fingers. Ray Lewis. The Baltimore Linebacker was determined that the curse was not to effect him. But that is not the case… again. It was not as dramatic as the others however Lewis had a decrease in performance for the 2004 season and the Ravens missed the playoffs.

Madden NFL 2006 they put Eagles quarterback Donovan McCnabb on the cover. In week 9 he suffered a hernia and the Eagles finnished 6-10 and in last place for the first time since 1999.

So now we go to Madden NFL 2007. Seatle’s Shaun Alexander got the honor and the curse. He suffered a broken foot and missed Six games, and also had the worst stats in his career since his rookie season.

For the 2008 edition Vince Young after a steller Rookie year was put on the cover. Then he threw 17 interceptions to 9 touchdowns. And they lost to the Chargers in the first round.

For Madden NFL 2009 they thought they could have beaten the curse. There was no way for the curse to strike! Brett Favre had retired so nothing could go wrong. Im sure they didn’t expect him to come out of retirement and get traded to the New York Jets. The Jets started 8-3 but finnished 9-7 and missed out on the playoffs. And the Packers also had a bad season as Favre is wearing a Packers uniform on the Cover.

Well now they decided to plague two players for Madden 10. Larry Fitzgerald and Troy Polamalu. Well last night Polamalu got hurt. No word on how serious but it just became laughable that the Madden Cover jinx still wont be phazed no matter what we throw at it.

At least they didnt put Jay Cutler on the cover! Who knows how much worse that could have become.

Until we were four minutes into the fourth quarter the score was seven to nothing(pomona) and the defense was playing exceptionally well(2 sacks and 2 forced fumbles/recoveries). Big plays and the ability for the Pomona quarterback to tuck the ball and run were the biggest contributors to the pomona touchdowns. The Ralston Valley offense made it inside the twenty on more than one occasion but were unable to come away with any points thanks to Deijon Tyler and the rest of pomonas exceptional defensive play. It wasn’t all bad for the offense,the blocking was done quite well and the running game was consistent for the mustangs but the intensity and energy seemed to have left some of the players(and the mustangs stands) nearer the end of the game. Next weeks game against Cherokee Trail (5a) will prove to be a test for the mustangs but if they secure a much needed victory it will launch them into their conference schedule (with yet another conference championship in sight).

RV fell behind early to faith trailing 13-6 in the first game. But a strong rally brought the score back to two points at 13-11 and eventually the Mustangs stole the lead 15-14. Faith regained the lead once at 18-17 but RV finished the game 8-3 to win the first game 25-21.

Faith came back to dominate the second game where they went on a 8-0 run to take the lead 23-12 and eventually won the game 25-17. Then the fun began. In the third game Ralston Valley lead for the majority of the game. They lead by as much as 5 with a 12-7 lead. But Faith had a strong push and tied it at 16, then took the lead 19-18. RV could not get the lead back and lost to Faith again 25-22.

The most exciting and heartbreaking game was to follow. RV came out firing taking an 8-2 and 10-3 lead. But they couldn’t hold on as Faith tied it at eleven on an 8-1 rally. RV tried to hold on but faith took the lead for the first time at 17-16. Faith never trailed from that point on. When Faith got to game point the score was 24-21. Head coach Lisa Nelson called timeout and the Mustangs responded with two straight points and they needed one more to extend the game. But Faith pulled out the win defeating the Mustangs 25-23 in the fourth game.

RV had lots of chances but outstanding defense from Faith was a weapon that the Mustangs had no answer for.

“Faith is pretty dang good,” Coach Lisa Nelson said. “They have a great Libero and their setter is very dynamic. But we didn’t do what we needed to do on our side of the net. One of our plans was not to hit to their Libero but we had a tendency to hit it to her an awful lot last night.”

RV got a stellar performance from setter Dominique Montijo who had at least two dozen assists.

“She played very well,” Nelson said. “She has really improved since last year.”

But it just wasn’t enough as the nerves started to kick in when the points became more critical.

“When you play scared in any sport especially in volleyball it shows, you have a tendency to play a little flat footed when you’re scared or nervous,” Nelson said.

Side Note

Two transfers from Faith Janel Gibeau and Hanna Gibeau were unable to play against their former school as they have to miss the first half of the season. Their presence would have made a big difference in the game last night.

Ralston Valley ranked number two in the state defeated Rocky Mountain earlier in the week ranked at number four in the state. But when it’s a 1 vs. 2 matchup nerves can be an issue.

However nerves didn’t seem to be an issue early for Ralston Valley’s Meaghan Murphy who retired the first six Legacy batters. And it looked like it could be an issue for Shelby Babcock early as she walked Megan Eldredge only the second Mustang to bat in the first inning. After Jennifer Hedrick sacrificed her over, Kelly Reeves was unable to get her in from second.

The Mustangs got a golden opportunity to do damage in the second after a Meaghan Murphy leadoff double and then two walks after that loaded the bases with just one out. However what could have been a big rally to put Babcock in an early hole turned into a missed opportunity. Two consecutive strikeouts ended the inning leaving the bases loaded.

Murphy continued to pitch well into the fourth only surrendering a double. But then disaster struck with three consecutive errors. The first occurred when Shea Rodriguez hit a ball right at Murphy; she had an issue handling it at first but then got it and threw it to Eldredge at first who couldn’t handle the throw. The next play was a ground ball that went through Eldredge’s glove and into right field advancing Rodriguez to third, and putting Buggs Torrez on first. Then catcher Marry Towner after a Murphy pitch tried to pick off Rodriguez at third but third basemen Hedrick couldn’t make the catch scoring Rodriguez. Torrez later scored in the inning to make it 2-0.

RV from that point on self destructed. They surrendered a run in the fifth on a passed ball and could not make contact on offense striking out eleven times. In the top half of the seventh RV could not get an out and Legacy put a nail in the coffin gaining a 6-0 lead and win.

Legacy outhit RV ten to one and struck out six times compared to the Mustangs eleven strike outs. Ralston Valley did reach base five times on balls and Murphy didn’t walk a single batter. But in the end a missed opportunity in the second inning and an error filled fourth dug the Mustangs into a hole they couldn’t get out of.

Game stats

Team	Runs	Hits	Errors
Legacy Lightning	6	10	0
Ralston Valley Mustangs	0	1	3

Ralston Valley

Pitcher Meaghan Murphy (1-1) L

93 pitches

70 strike-23 ball

Legacy

Player	At bats	Hits	Base on Balls	Strikeouts
Melissa Marcovecchio	3	1	0	0
Shae Rodriguez	3	1	0	0
Buggs Torrez	3	1	0	1
Shelby Babcock	4	2	0	0
Kaitlyn Mattila	4	1	0	1
Rainey Gaffin	4	1	0	1
Marisa Cordova	3	0	0	2
Jessica Ball	3	2	0	0
Payton Price	3	1	0	1

Pitcher

Shelby Babcock W

130 Pitches

56 ball- 74 strike