Mojave defense thwarts Mountain Lions

Mojave coach Joe Delgado did all he could this week to keep his Rattlers focused on Friday's game against Sierra Vista.

With a potentially bigger showdown against Faith Lutheran next week, it would have been easy for his players to lose track of the task at hand.

To their credit, they didn't.

Mojave's defense stopped the Mountain Lions four times on fourth down, including their final possession with less than a minute to play, to preserve an 8-6 victory at home.

"We try to have them not read into things, we just focus on our opponent and what we need to do here," Delgado said. "It's tough, and you gotta keep pounding it on them every day to stay focused, in practice and through film.

"We don't get this win tonight, it really doesn't matter. Now we can finally focus on Faith next week."

Though the Mountain Lions outgained Mojave, 194-171, it was the Rattlers' suffocating rush defense that limited Sierra Vista to 59 yards rushing.

Sierra Vista quarterback Oscar Aliaga completed just 33 percent (9 of 27) of his passes and finished with 135 yards.

"Our defense, that's how we work every day at practice, we want to win," said Elijah Smoot, who had several key stops for the Rattler's defense, and finished with 67 yards rushing on 13 attempts. "We've never won a division title, so that's what we're searching for."

Mojave struck first on the scoreboard, when Blake Fitzgerald raced 65 yards for a touchdown with 11:35 left in the second quarter to put the Rattlers up 6-0.

Defensive lineman Alex Carvalho tackled Aliaga in the end zone for a safety on the ensuing possession to extend Mojave's lead to 8-0.

Sierra Vista's best opportunity came in the third quarter, when Mojave punted from its own 5-yard line, and was penalized for a personal foul. The infraction put the Mountain Lions on Mojave's 13-yard line.

Sierra Vista eventually got to the 7-yard line, but threw consecutive incomplete passes on third and fourth down to give the Rattlers the ball back with 3:24 left in the third quarter.

"The defense came up big there, and if we don't get that stop ... this might be a different ball game," Delgado said.

The Lions finally got on the board at the 3:44 mark in the fourth quarter, when Aliaga hit Andrew Dunn on a 10-yard TD strike.

Aliaga looked for Dunn on the two-point conversion, but his pass was broken up by Mojave's Lamaja Cunningham.

"We needed our defense to step up and they stepped up big," Delgado said. "We got that big two-point conversion stop and the rest of it was just staying strong, running the clock and getting out alive. Sometimes the game goes like that, and we were on the better end tonight."