 | | | Miles Honens played an instrumental role in Miramonte's 34-7 win Photo David DeSilva
| | | | | | Miramonte took full advantage of Campolindo's defensive frailties last Friday, October 22, as they defeated their local rivals 34-7.
Miramonte wide receiver Miles Honens caught two touchdown passes for 73 yards while also snatching an important interception late in the second quarter to lead the Matadors (7-1 overall, 3-1 DFAL) to victory. The team bounced back in solid form after dropping their first game of the season in a 27-24 upset against Las Lomas the week before.
"We were pretty disappointed with how we played on both sides of the ball last week, so we were really focused this week on playing a solid game," Miramonte head coach John Wade said.
The Cougars (5-3, 1-3 DFAL) went into the game destroyed by injuries, six defensive starters and five offensive starters were causalities. Miramonte proved to take full advantage of the situation, as quarterback Ross Anderson completed seven of ten passes for 164 yards and two touchdowns.
"Our goal was to come out and play tough at the line of scrimmage," Cougars head coach Kevin Macy said. "We have a completely green secondary out there, and they were able to take advantage. That's where most of our injuries this season have come from. We had to play [two] sophomores, had to play both our quarterbacks in the secondary, and you don't want to do that."
The game's clincher proved to be at the end of the second quarter, when Honens caught two touchdown passes and an interception.
He caught a 38-yard pass for a touchdown to put the Matadors up 14-0, with a little over four minutes remaining in the half. Honens then, from the free safety position on defense, caught the very next pass thrown by Campolindo in an interception. Twenty seconds later, back on offense, he caught a wide open 35-yard pass from Anderson to extend the lead and effectively put the game out of reach.
"Miles is a really good athlete," Wade said. "We've asked him to do a bunch of different things, and he made a lot of things happen tonight."
Campolindo was able to get on the board in the fourth quarter on a Joey Bertrand run, and while it gave the Cougars something to show for the efforts, it was too little too late as the team ran out of steam.
While acknowledging the significance of the rivalry win, Wade believes that the win was truly important because of the game's timing.
"All of the victories are hard to get, but I know our guys have basically grown up with all their guys and they've been playing against each other forever, so it obviously makes it a little bit better and sweeter," Wade said. "But it's a way to get back after last week's situation."
Macy, on the other hand, was simply pleased to see his team complete the game with no new injuries.
"The goal was to get out of this game healthy," Macy said. "This is probably the first game we've come out of a game without being decimated by injuries. So this will give us a chance to still play out our next two games and try to get better."
The Matadors will now have the opportunity to rest on their bye week before facing Dublin on November 5, while the Cougars will face Alhambra on October 29.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA