Sans Key Players, Mallard Creek Wins 28-7

                You know you have a great team when you are missing five key starters, including your quarterback, runningback and a wide receiver, and you still come out with a 28-7 win. That was the case for the Mallard Creek Mavericks as they hosted McDonough, a team out of Maryland. The Eagles were 2-0 heading into this game.

                Things did not start off well for the Mavericks as McDonough would score out of the gate. Mylique McGriff got the Eagles on the board with a 37-yard touchdown run. Mike Shinsky’s extra point made it 7-0 Eagles. The Mavericks would tie it up with a 12-yard touchdown run by backup quarterback Larry Matkins and the extra point from Anthony Valderrama.

                The Eagles appeared to be ready to retake the lead later in the second quarter, but they were stopped on fourth down at the Mavericks 28-yard line. The score would remain a stalemate going into halftime. In the second half, the Mavericks appeared to take the lead with a 19-yard run from Matkins, but a holding penalty brought it back. However, the Mavericks would score when Matkins connected with Thaddeus Moss for a 13-yard touchdown pass. Valderrama’s kick was good. That would be the only score of the third quarter.

                Starting quarterback James Smith came in for one play in the fourth quarter when Larry Matkins appeared shook up after a hit he took from a McDonough defender. That play was a 66-yard pass to Ryan Jones that moved them from their own 26-yard line to the Eagles’ eight-yard line. Matkins returned after that play. Darnell Walker finished off the drive with a five-yard touchdown run.

                Ryan Jones put the nail in the coffin with an end-around run to the left side that resulted 60-yard touchdown run. Valderrama was 4-for-4 on extra points. McDonough just could not get anything going in the second half.

                “I thought we played well. We played physical. We knew what kind of team that was. That was a big-time physical team and we wanted to play physical to get ready for conference. It was a good win for the program tonight.” said Mallard Creek head coach Michael Palmieri.

                When talking about the injuries on the team and the impact it has, Palmieri said “It don’t matter! It’s next man up around here. We have confidence in our kids. We prepare for this. We know how long the season is.”

                When talking about the penalties “Yeah, we got to clean that up. Some penalties we make (being) aggressive. Others, we just don’t focus. We’ll get them right by playoff time, we better.”

                “We’re excited!” Palmieri said about conference play coming up “We got West Charlotte. We’re excited about starting conference. We are going for our seventh one in a row. That’s our goal, to win conference, make the playoffs and win a state championship.”

                “I don’t think the score indicates what kind of game it was. The game was closer than the score.” said McDonough head coach Dominic Damico “They made some big plays there at the end that wore us down. But I think it was a good game, well played for three quarters. They (Mallard Creek) have a good team, very athletic, very strong at the point of attack. We hung in there as long as we could.

“They have probably 10 or 11 kids that were offered scholarships. It’s not normal to have that many scholarships on it so we knew what we were getting into. We won’t play anybody in our league as good as Mallard Creek and we were competitive with them for three quarters so we know we got a good ball club. The football in our league is not as good as this except when we play a few teams but this will be the best team we have played all year.”

Mallard Creek opens up conference play at West Charlotte next week. McDonough will play Mount Saint Joseph in Baltimore.