It's hard to turn regular season success into postseason wins, a fact the Newbury Park Panthers can now relate to. Their tough 55-34 loss to the Coyotes on Saturday might stick with them for a while. Newbury Park's loss signaled the end of their five-game winning streak.
Despite the loss, Newbury Park saw an underclassman step up: Brady Smigiel threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns, and also punched in a rushing scores. Blake Bryce was another key contributor, picking up 97 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Sire Gaines was his usual excellent self, rushing for 312 yards and four touchdowns while picking up 16.4 yards per carry for Orange Vista. Gaines' longest rush was for an incredible 80 yards. Another player making a difference was Khalil Abdul-aziz, who rushed for 61 yards and a touchdown.
On the other side of the ball, a lot of the credit has to go to Orange Vista's defensive line and their three sacks. Adam Gomez was especially locked on to Newbury Park's QB and sacked him twice.
Newbury Park's loss dropped their record down to 10-4. As for Orange Vista, they pushed their record up to 11-3 with that victory, which was their sixth straight on the road.
Newbury Park does not have any more games scheduled as of now. Orange Vista will head out on the road to face off against La Serna at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. La Serna is also coming in off of a big victory, so somebody is in for a big reversal of fortune.
