Simoncelli's Long Run Sparks Mustangs To Crosstown Victory

 fans have gotten used to seeing their backs racing up the open field for long touchdown runs.

It happened again midway through the first quarter of Friday night’s crosstown battle with visiting , only it wasn’t who they expected.

On ’s third play from scrimmage, senior quarterback A.J. Simoncelli faked a handoff to star running back Josh Williams and raced untouched up the middle for a 67-yard touchdown that started the Mustangs (5-0) on their way to a 24-14 victory.

It was the longest touchdown run of Simoncelli’s football career, which began 12 years ago.

“That wasn’t me at all,” Simoncelli said. “That was Josh’s fake. They flew toward his side, (fullback) DeMarco Johnson made a great block outside and I didn’t look back after that.”

Simoncelli, whose previous career-best run was a 53-yard gain against Morton last year, had just one thing in mind as he sprinted into the clear.

“At the 20-yard line I saw the blue (of the end zone) and I said I’m not getting tackled from behind again,” said Simoncelli, who finished with six carries for 79 yards and completed 5 of 11 passes for 53 yards. “I had to score.”

Indeed, the score was important because  (1-4) did a terrific job of limiting Williams in the first half, holding the shifty speedster to only 19 yards on seven carries.

Williams, who twice has scored six touchdowns in a game this fall, did have a 22-yard reception on a 16-play, 54-yard drive that resulted in a 32-yard field goal by Anthony Farinella with 15 seconds left in the second quarter, but the Mustangs led only 10-0 at intermission.

“ is a really good team at keeping the ball in their offense’s hands and running time off the clock and we didn’t do a good job of capitalizing when we did have the ball,” Williams said. “So coming out in the second half we knew we had to step it up and help our defense out by keeping them off the field.”

The Mustangs did exactly that as the offensive line finally wore down the Trojans and opened huge holes for Williams, who racked up 134 yards in the third quarter and finished the night with 221 yards on 29 carries. That included a 10-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter and a 28-yard scoring jaunt with 11:36 left in the fourth quarter that boosted ’s lead to 24-0.

Simoncelli gave kudos to the blocking prowess of linemen Shane Companey, Kevin Nam, Tim Lieb, Mark Muench, Sean Eslit and Scott Daly for the turnaround.

The Trojans “played great,” Simoncelli noted. “We had a great game plan, of course. Coach (John) Belskis prepares very well, puts us in the best position to win, but sometimes we just don’t have it, we shoot ourselves in the foot a couple times like we did, but in the second half we came out and pretty much pounded the ball down their throats and they couldn’t stop our offensive line. They did an amazing job tonight.”

The Trojans didn’t lack for scoring chances, but couldn’t convert on their first two trips into the red zone. In the second quarter, a 16-play drive got as far as the 7 before a holding penalty pushed the Trojans back and quarterback Riley McGinnis was sacked on fourth-and-goal by Josh Belt, who caused a fumble which was recovered by Korey Higgins.

Then with the Mustangs ahead 17-0 in the third quarter, drove to the 8. That chance was squandered by a 10-yard loss on a fumbled pitch, two incompletions and, finally, Lance Leong’s interception of McGinnis at the 3.

The Trojans finally broke through at the 7:36 mark of the fourth when Anthony Rada, who had 127 yards rushing on 20 carries, scored on a one-yard run. Robert Sheppard added a two-yard touchdown run to finish the scoring with 21 seconds left.