The opportunities just kept knocking on Mountain View's door Friday night.
Those chances – in the form of several Corona del Sol turnovers and miscues – led to five touchdowns as the Toros thrashed the Aztecs 50-0 in a 5A-I Central Region game at Hascall Henshaw Stadium in Tempe.
Three of those Corona turnovers came with the game still up for grabs in the final three minutes of the first half. Trailing 7-0, Aztecs quarterback Evan Kenney had a pass picked off by Toros defender McKay Randall, who returned it to the Corona 31. Three plays later, Coltin Adair bolted in from 10 yards out, making it 15-0.
Another Kenney interception led to Jeremy Boatright's 31-yard touchdown pass to Patrick Glover 25 seconds later. A Kenney fumble on the Aztecs' next possession led to a Boatright 40-yard scoring strike to Adair.
A tight game turned into a 29-0 blowout in two minutes flat.
“It was unfortunate that we amassed some errors in a very short amount of time,” Corona coach Zane Zamenski said. “It ended up costing us on the scoreboard. It just kind of snowballed right there at the end of the first half.”
Things got worse for the Aztecs in the second half.
James Contes' fumble late in the third quarter gave the Toros another short field. They capitalized with a 34-yard drive, capped by Colten Nielsen's 3-yard TD run. The Toros also got good field position after blocking a punt late in the game. Jeff Castillo plunged in from the 1 to finish off the 25-yard drive and make it 50-0.
“It took us a while to get the wheels going, but they played really well,” Mountain View coach Tom Joseph said.
The Toros (2-0, 3-2) have won three straight, and Joseph says his players are feeling good about themselves after opening the season with two losses.
“We're getting there. We're getting where we need to be,” he said. “The big thing is just believing in themselves that we can get this done.”
Boatright finished with three touchdown passes (5 of 13, 119 yards) as well as a 1-yard touchdown sneak. Josh Funk led the ground game with 73 yards on 10 carries.
Tight end Justin Newman had three catches for 48 yards and a touchdown.
The Toros amassed 325 yards while limiting the Aztecs to 105.
Corona dropped to 1-5 and 0-2 in Central play.
“We've got to go back to the drawing board and correct several things,” Zamenski said. “It's not things that are unfixable.”
