Mountain View’s performance on Friday at McKenzie Stadium resembled a before-and-after picture.
Before: Not so good, as the Thunder trailed rival Evergreen by four points at halftime.
After: Much better.
The Thunder scored 27 unanswered points after the intermission to roll past Evergreen 40-17 and into a three-team tiebreaker in the 4A Greater St. Helens League.
The Thunder finished the regular season 5-2 in league, tied with Skyview and Battle Ground. Those three teams will meet in a Kansas Plan tiebreaker on Monday in Camas to see which two teams advance to the Week 10 playoffs and which team is done for the year.
But in the first half Friday, the idea of that potential tiebreaker may have gotten the better of the Thunder as Evergreen jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter and held a 17-13 edge at the half.
“The coaches pretty much called us out in there” at halftime, senior lineman Chris Mitchell said. “We needed it. Our effort just wasn’t there first half. (The Plainsmen) were playing harder than us.”
Evergreen took the opening kickoff and marched 65 yards for the first score, a 23-yard touchdown pass from Peyton Monda to Dustin Nettles. Later in the first quarter, the Plainsmen went 75 yards with Nathaniel Trevino running for a 15-yard touchdown to give Evergreen a 14-0 lead.
Mountain View cut the margin to 14-7 on Preston Jones’ 2-yard TD run early in the second quarter. After the Thunder got an interception deep in their own territory, Colin Biggs hit Darien Chase on a wide receiver screen, and the freshman slipped a few tacklers, breaking free on a 95-yard touchdown pass play to cut Evergreen’s lead to 14-13.
The Plainsmen capped the half with a six-minute drive that ended with Quentin Petcu’s 25-yard field for a 17-13 halftime lead.
But in the second half, it was all Thunder.
“I think we were a little high on ourselves going into the game,” Mitchell said. “At halftime, we just got a reality check and just got on it. Our defense started hitting, everything started working and our offense starting rolling.”
Jones rushed four times for 58 yards on the first drive of the third quarter, including the final 22 yards for a touchdown to give Mountain View its first lead at 20-17.
Later in the third, Jones had a 36-yard run followed by a 25-yard touchdown run, and the Thunder led 27-17.
After a mishandled punt gave the Thunder the ball on the Evergreen 15, Jones ran for his fourth touchdown on the very next play.
An 18-yard TD pass from Biggs to Anthony Ramirez early in the fourth quarter capped the scoring.
Jones finished with 209 yards rushing, and Taj Albeck rushed for 155 yards.
“Definitely nerves in the first half,” Albeck said. “We wanted to come out and impress everybody and finish hard. The weather made it a little bit rough. We made some mistakes. But we came out in the second (half), fixed them and did a lot better.”
MOUNTAIN VIEW 40, EVERGREEN 17
MV 0 13 21 6–40
Eve 14 3 0 0–17
First quarter
Eve–Dustin Nettles 23 pass from Peyton Monda (Quentin Petcu kick)
Eve–Nathaniel Trevino 15 run (Petcu kick)
Second quarter
MV — Preston Jones 2 run (Colin Biggs kick)
MV — Darien Chase 95 pass from Biggs (kick failed)
Eve — Petcu 25 FG
Third quarter
MV — Jones 22 run (Biggs kick)
MV — Jones 25 run (Biggs kick)
MV — Jones 15 run (Biggs kick)
Fourth quarter
MV — Anthony Ramirez 18 pass from Biggs (pass failed)
Individual statistics
RUSHING — Mountain View: Jones 21-209, Taj Albeck 20-155, Ramirez 8-68, Colvin Sablan 4-26, Michael Urruchua 2-9, Biggs 2-4, Brandon Walker 1-(-1), Ben Petrie 3-(-1). Evergreen: Marquis Sampson 5-106, Dallas Goodpaster 12-64, Trevino 9-49, Monda 1-4, Tre Ratcliff 4-(-5), team 1-(-12).
PASSING — Mountain View: Biggs 2-2-0-113. Evergreen: Monda 12-19-1-109.
RECEIVING — Mountain View: Chase 1-95, Ramirez 1-18. Evergreen: Dustin Nettles 5-77, Sampson 2-20, Trevino 3-12, Jonathan Spiering 1-2, Goodpaster 1-(-2).
