Big third quarter propels El Cap football to first WAC win

Slowly but surely, the El Capitan High football team is scratching things off of its season to-do list.

The Gauchos checked off the program’s first victory and road win with a rout of first-year Mountain House at the beginning of September.

El Capitan added its first Western Athletic Conference victory on Friday night, doing so in emphatic fashion. The Gauchos turned in arguably their best quarter in program history, riding a 29-point outburst after the break to a 57-12 win over Livingston.

“We’ve been waiting for that quarter since I got to El Capitan,” said quarterback Chase Whitaker, who passed for 273 yards and five touchdowns in the victory. “We’ve been waiting for that forever, and it feels great to finally get it.

“First, the defense came out strong. They shut them down, and we went out there. Credit to (Joseph) Lemas for a great run. Credit to everyone that ran: Josh Stewart, Da’Vonya Shepherd, Elijah Reid, Marcos Dinkins, Travis Minor. I mean, all great guys. Our offensive line blocked their hearts out; they did amazing. And with all of that put together, we come out with a victory.”

The game started as a track meet with the two teams exchanging five quick touchdowns.

El Cap’s Stewart (nine carries, 169 yards) broke free for a 65-yard touchdown run on the second play from scrimmage. Shepherd took a pass to the flat 51 yards for a score on the Gauchos’ next series, and Stewart followed with a 38-yard TD reception on a swing pass.

Livingston (1-4, 0-1 WAC) answered with touchdown runs by Cort Reed and Eddie Avila (31 carries, 162 yards). The Wolves looked poised to add a third score just before the half but were turned away at the El Capitan 1-yard line.

The defense of the Gauchos (2-3, 1-0) seemed to ride that momentum into the second half, holding Livingston to three three-and-outs and an interception to open the second half.

“Those three, four stops in a row to start the second half were the reason we broke it open,” El Cap coach Mike Machado said. “When we’re keeping the other team’s offense off of the field like that, we can start to play fast and create that avalanche effect that we want.

“All of a sudden, the offense scores a couple times in a row, and we keep riding that momentum.”

The Gauchos’ offense certainly left no doubt after the break.

Joseph Lema took a fly sweep 50 yards for a score on EC’s second touch of the second half. He followed it up with a 10-yard TD run on the Gauchos’ next series, and a two-point conversion made it 36-12.

El Cap wasn’t done.

A Stewart interception on a fake punt set up a 22-yard, one-handed touchdown grab by Reid. Shepherd scored on EC’s next play, taking a short pass 39 yards for a touchdown and finishing off the 29-point swing in 8 minutes, 17 seconds.

“They made big plays, and we did not tonight,” Livingston coach Alex Gonzalez said. “We have to do a better job tackling when we have the chance defensively, and we have to take advantage of opportunities to extend drives on offense.

“Five times tonight, we had great chances to pick up first downs, and each time we didn’t make the play. If we convert those third downs, they probably don’t get the chance to run away with the game like that.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2015 at 12:41 AM with the headline "Big third quarter propels El Cap football to first WAC win."