Stewart’s big night helps lead El Capitan to first win

Joshua Stewart didn’t let his final touch of the opening week carry over to Friday night.

The El Capitan senior fumbled at the one-yard line in the Gauchos’ first possession of overtime in last week’s 40-34 loss to Stone Ridge Christian.

Stewart showed no ill effects on Friday night, scoring five times (four rushing touchdowns and on a fumble return) to help lead El Capitan to its first win in program history, 64-0 over Mountain House.

“This is something that was 17 months of work,” Gauchos coach Mike Machado said. “The kids are obviously pretty happy. They were fired up after. I think they’re still fired up.”

Machado said El Cap’s dominance in the ground game was the difference. The Gauchos racked up close to 400 rushing yards behind Stewart and Isaac Gonzalez (two TDs). The passing game had its moments as well with Chase Whitaker and Marcos Dinkins hooking up for a pair of scores.

“I didn’t realize coming here that it would be really windy,” Machado said. “It’s probably something I should have looked up in advance, but as we were warming up we began to adjust the game plan.

“It was probably blowing 20 miles per hour and it made it really tough to throw it across the field. The guys answered the challenge and had the mindset that we were going to run the ball downhill. I think they understand now that they physically can play at the varsity level. We have a good measuring stick game against Gregori next week to see where we are physically.”

This story was originally published September 5, 2015 at 12:49 AM with the headline "Stewart’s big night helps lead El Capitan to first win."