Roosevelt football overcomes early mistakes to beat Colony – Press Enterprise

EASTVALE — Roosevelt coach Chuck Chastain was frustrated with his team’s mistakes as his team trailed after three quarters of Friday’s homecoming game against Colony.

But in the end, it was the Mustangs who took advantage of Colony mistakes.

Roosevelt intercepted two Titans passes in the final two minutes, the first setting up Mitchell Rodenbaugh’s go-ahead touchdown and the second sealing a 38-31 nonleague victory at Roosevelt High School.

“We just didn’t play our best football tonight,” Chastain said. “I’m proud of our kids to find a way to win when it mattered. We’ve got to clean some things up, play with more rhythm. I’m proud of their resiliency in the fourth quarter.

The Mustangs (4-1) never trailed in the game until Colony (3-3) scored a pair of third-quarter touchdowns to take a 31-24 lead.

Roosevelt quarterback Bryan Wilson struggled mightily in the first half, completing 3-of-15 passes for 32 yards.

In the second half, Wilson ran for a 76-yard touchdown and completed 9-of-14 passes for 136 yards, one interception and one touchdown, which went for 33 yards to Ty Beadle, tying the score 31-31 with 11:27 remaining.

The game was still tied when the Titans got the ball back at their own 7 with 5:18 to play, and Colony coach Brian Zavala had designs on driving for the go-ahead score and not giving Roosevelt enough time to respond.

But on third-and-10 from their 18, Jacob Montoya threw an interception to Sheldon Williams that gave the Mustangs the ball at the Colony 27 with 1:41 left. But on the play, Zavala was frustrated that a penalty was not called on Roosevelt for holding Colony receiver Armon Hornsby.

“I think everybody in the stands saw it, from both sides,” Zavala said of the penalty. “You can’t go back and rewind, but when a jersey comes off the shoulder pad and the kid was on the floor (it should be clear).”

On the fourth play after the interception, Rodenbaugh ran for an 11-yard touchdown for a 38-31 lead with 36.1 seconds left. Rodenbaugh finished with 21 carries for 179 yards and three touchdowns.

The Titans, who were led by junior running back Elijah Ybanez (26 carries, 128 yards, one touchdown) comeback attempt was thwarted when Isaiah Blakley intercepted a pass with 10.9 seconds left.

“I thought in the fourth quarter we started playing with some rhythm,” Chastain said. “Playing with speed and flying around the football on both sides of the ball and we made the plays when we needed to.”

Colony had a chance to win the game in large part to discipline. The Titans had only one penalty (an intentional delay of game on fourth down), while Roosevelt was flagged nine times for 85 yards.

It’s something Zavala believes the Titans can build upon.

“Obviously the outcome, you want to be on the other side of it,” Zavala said. “This is one we’re going to definitely grow from and look back and say we could’ve easily packed it in.”