MAC'S SPORTS REPORT CONCUSSION COMEBACK BY KYLE JACKSON ILLUSTRATED BY SIMON RUMBLE
PREDATORS SHOW GRIT ON THE GRIDIRON by Mac McKenzie The game wasn’t pretty Constant drizzle softened the field Players cleats ground away at the turf Halfway through the first quarter the field had been churned to mud Featuring two of the top-scoring teams in the state this was supposed to be a high scoring affair Coyote Canyon Middle now 3 0 had been averaging a solid 25 points a game East River 2 1 was coming off a 46 8 blowout victory But the weather made it almost impossible to move the chains It often appeared difficult for players to merely stay on their feet The Predators made the adjustment first Usually they feature a balanced offense half pass half run But their strategy quickly became all-run all the time At first they had
some success Running back Carter Sanchez charged his way to several first downs At the end of the first quarter he slipped literally into the end zone That ended up being the game’s only points All told quarterback Ryan Mitchell attempted just six passes and only one of them in the second half With 1 08 remaining in the fourth quarter the Predators got called for a holding penalty that pinned them to their own one-yard line It was third and 16 so a first down seemed unthinkable Mitchell was going to hand the ball off to Sanchez and hope he could gain a few yards and give the Predators punter some room to kick Mitchell took the snap faked to throw then reached out to hand off the ball to Sanchez An opposing lineman drilled Mitchell to the field while Sanchez broke
