Although there are only two regular-season games left to play, plenty of playoff implications are still on the line. Moorpark needed a win to secure a second-place spot in the Channel League, and that’s exactly what they did.
In complete dominating fashion, the Musketeers took down Royal, 41-0, on Friday. With another win in their final game of the regular season on Friday, Nov. 1, they would have done everything they needed to earn second place and secure at least one home playoff match.
All that’s left is to win against Buena.
“I’m proud of the way we executed on offense and defense,” said Musketeers head coach Ryan Huisenga. “(The Highlanders) have some dudes up front but our guys played great and our coaches did a great job executing a game plan. Our guys are excited to play and what the future holds for us so we’re really looking forward to next week.”
The lone bright spot for the Highlanders was Caden Pugh who ended his night with 28 rushing yards, including two rushes of over 10 yards before halftime to try and spark something heading into the second half.
The Musketeers forced three turnovers (two fumble recoveries by Quinn Huisenga and Thomas Nielsen), allowed just 56 yards of total offense, and even scored a defensive touchdown; a pick-6 by Gerrit Gray. A full game’s worth of action accumulated in one half of play.
The Musketeers also scored four offensive touchdowns in a shutout first half, all by different players: A 15-yard receiving touchdown by Tyler Huisenga, a 17-yard receiving touchdown by Derek Nickels, an 11-yard rushing touchdown by Carson Melzer, and a 2-yard rushing touchdown by Connor Concepcion.
All the Highlanders were able to do was make plays that will hopefully set them up for success in their next game.
“It’s been a tough season,” said Highlanders head coach Michael Puopolo. “In these moments it’s really easy to pump the brakes, but my team is very resilient. These guys fight for four quarters. Every week is a new week and next week we want to send our seniors out the right way.”
Only one more touchdown ended up being scored the entire second half. Another potential pick-6 for the Musketeers was called back but quarterback Luke Eldridge found the end zone with his legs on a 7-yard score.
Eldridge ended his night with 195 total yards and three total touchdowns.
“Everyone played a good clean game,” said Eldridge. “The goal is to get the ball around and get all our guys included. It makes my job easy when they do their job. Now it’s time to go to practice and keep working Hopefully we can make a big run in the CIF playoffs.”
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Perhaps his strongest connection of the night landed with Cooper Cronquist. Although Cronquist didn’t find the end zone, all three of his catches resulted in a first down.
“Having a quarterback to get you the ball is so nice to have,” said Cronquist. “We can celebrate the win now and then come back Monday we got to grind hard. We got to forget about this week. We’re 0-0 again.”