Aggies rebound in Battle of the Bulls

After an embarrassing loss at Division I-A powerhouse Desert Pines in last week's season-opener, Arbor View senior Curtis Jones appeared to be on a mission to make sure his Aggies avenged the setback this week.

The 5-foot-9, 160-pound tailback rushed for 178 yards and three touchdowns and returned a punt 65 yards for another score to lead Arbor View to a 52-27 win over visiting Legacy in the annual Battle of the Bulls clash.

Jones helped the Aggies (1-1) offense to 384 yards, including 347 on the ground.

"Not only was it the rivalry (with Legacy), but last week we had a lot of mistakes and we needed to look past that and put it behind us," Jones said. "We came out tonight with a lot of anger, and it showed. I'm very proud of my team.

"But our preparation was great, and that's a credit to coach (Dan) Barnson."

And while Arbor View's offense looked much better than the one that managed just 14 points last week, it was the Aggies' defense that helped them prevail against their rival. After allowing 545 yards to Desert Pines, the Aggies limited Legacy (0-2) to 362 yards on Friday.

"Besides Gorman, that was the best team that we had played the last four years last week," Barnson said of Desert Pines. "The thing people don't realize about Arbor View is, we have one returning starter on offense, and one returning starter on defense. We have 20 brand new guys on the field, we're young. We need to get some more games under our belt.

"We had a rough practice this week. It was hard to bounce back after last week, it was a gut check. But we went to practice and we played tonight. We were a different team."

After Arbor View senior defensive end Gage Motl snatched Legacy quarterback Tanoa Alapati's pass out of the air and rumbled 65 yards for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, senior tight end Bishop Jones echoed Barnson's sentiments, as he raced up and down the Aggies sideline exclaiming: "Last week wasn't us; this is our football team tonight!"

Arbor View, which lost a fumble on the game's first possession, fell behind early when Legacy's Alapati hooked up with Lucas Krause on an 8-yard touchdown reception with 5 minutes, 39 seconds left in the first quarter.

Curtis Jones answered immediately, though, as he raced 80 yards on the Aggies' next possession. It was the first of three straight possessions that Arbor View scored on its first play, as the Aggies went up 21-6 with two minutes left in the first quarter. Curtis Jones' punt return for a touchdown put the Aggies ahead 28-6 with 11.3 seconds left in the opening period.

"I liked how the kids battled," Barnson said. "We go down 6-0 and we battled and we drove and we kind of ran our stuff. We figured out a couple of plays we wanted to run, and who we wanted to run at and just stuck with it."

Bishop Jones added a 37-yard touchdown, while running back Morris Jackson contributed with 90 yards on 15 attempts and one touchdown. Placekicker Carter Andrade made all seven of his extra-point attempts and added a 31-yard field goal.

Legacy's Naim Geeslin had 190 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 17 rushing attempts. Jamal Britt had two receptions for 82 yards and one score. He also had two interceptions for the Longhorns.