Football: Park Vista 19, John I. Leonard 6

Friday, September 12, 2008
by Julius Whigham II

For the second straight week, Park Vista relied on a strong rushing attack to lead it to victory.

Sophomore running back Trence "Tre" Mason rushed for 182 yards and a touchdown, and quarterback Billy Perez ran for two scores as Park Vista defeated host John I. Leonard 19-6 on Friday night.

Perez's night included an 80-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter, and the Cobras defense held John I. Leonard scoreless until late in the fourth quarter.

"My O-Line, once again, was wonderful," Mason said. "I saw my fullback made a great block and I just saw (open) grass and took it to the house."

The Cobras (2-0) put together an 85-yard drive that included a 40-yard run by Mason to set up their first score Perez scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak with 2:39 to play in the first to give Park Vista a 7-0 advantage.

Mason's score would give the Cobras a 13-0 advantage with 5:38 remaining before halftime, and Perez extended the lead to 19-0 on 17-yard scoring run with 5:25 to play in the third quarter. Park Vista drove deep into Leonard territory early in the fourth quarter, but had to settle for a field-goal attempt. That attempt was unsuccessful.

"We played three really good quarters," Park Vista coach Brian Dodds said. "They ran an offense that really controlled the ball. They ran a lot of clock, so our offense didn't get a lot of opportunities in the game. But up until the fourth quarter, we did do well offensively. ... I was just disappointed we got inside the 10 and didn't score at the beginning of the fourth quarter and we ran out of gas."

John I. Leonard fullback Dillan Ovinas had a team-high 91 rushing yards on nine carries. Running back Quadarias Mireles helped the Lancers (1-1) avoid the shutout, scoring on a 24-yard touchdown run with 2:09 to play in the fourth quarter.

The Lancers threatened to score midway in the second quarter, before a fumble ended a drive deep in Park Vista territory.

"When you play great teams, you can't make that many mistakes," Leonard coach Wayne Monroe said. "Our theme this week was to take care of the small things and tonight we didn't take care of the small things.