BELLFLOWER – You won’t hear second-year Esperanza coach Gary Bowers making excuses, but losing four offensive lineman, including one Friday night to injury, has the Aztecs looking at a very uphill climb.
Bellflower (3-0), behind two rushing touchdowns from quarterback Demetrius Reed, cruised past visiting Esperanza 40-14, and the path will only get tougher for the Aztecs when they face Buena Park next week.
Esperanza (0-2) never got closer than 16 points in the second half, but got touchdown runs of 17 and 4 yards, respectively, from Patrick Campos.
“We’re in a tough spot, but we have to play with what we’ve got,” Bowers said. “Injuries are part of the game and we’re going to have to find a way to get better. We’re doing everything we can to prepare for league.”
Madison Wheeler scored a pair of touchdowns for the Bucs, with a 16-yard scoring run in the second quarter, and then Wheeler picked off Esperanza’s Trevor Markowitz and brought it back 25 yards for a score to give Bellflower a 40-7 lead with 6:23 to play.
Marquise Lowe started the scoring for Bellflower with a 5-yard rushing touchdown on the Bucs first drive of the game, and finished with a game-high 134 yards on 20 carries.
Brett Mullins led the Aztecs with 60 yards on 10 carries.
Christian Pinzon kicked field goals of 37 and 25 yards for Bellflower.
“Our defense was on the field for 75 plays and you’re never going to win a game when your defense is on the field for that long,” Bowers said. “We gave ourselves bad field position and didn’t play well on special teams. But we’re going to play tough teams like this to get us ready for a very tough league schedule.”
Esperanza opens league Sept 26 against Canyon.
