Green Valley overwhelms Eldorado in 65-0 victory

Coming off a bye week, Green Valley coach Brian Castro was hoping to see his team knock off a little rust while hosting Eldorado Friday.

While there was no sign of rust from the Gators, there was almost no sign of life from the Sundevil offense thanks to a dominant outing by the Green Valley defense, holding Eldorado to eight yards of offense and forcing four turnovers on the way to seizing a 65-0 win.

Senior defensive end Brock Hershberger, who had 1 ½ sacks, said Green Valley (3-1) was focused on taking care of business despite the Sundevils limited success so far this season.

“Coming in we didn’t underestimate anyone,” Hershberger said. “We knew if we didn’t come out and play hard, they would give us their all.

“And it was another home game, so we had to come out and show off for the home fans. I think we did just that.”

Hershberger anchored a Gator defensive front that overwhelmed Eldorado (0-5) the entire contest, limiting the Sundevils to minus-12 rushing yards.

“Those guys did a great job,” Green Valley coach Brian Castro said. “For us it was a good outing. We have conference starting next week, so it was important to get this win under our belt.”

Green Valley forced three turnovers in the first quarter to spark the onslaught, highlighted by German Bastidas 49-yard pick-6 with 5:00 left in the quarter that made it 21-0.

Later in the quarter, a turnover propelled the Gators to ring up two touchdowns in 21 seconds.

Kalyja Waialae found a wide open Brayden Anderson on the right side of the end zone from 20 yards out to push Green Valley’s lead to 28-0 with 1:06 left.

On the ensuing kickoff, Chase Kopp recovered an Eldorado fumble, and Julian Hulse scored on a 23 yard run on the next play to extend the margin to 35-0 with 45 seconds left in the first quarter.

Hulse, Joseph Porter-Riley and Malek Adkins each posted a pair of rushing touchdowns for the Gators. Quarterback Kalyja Waialae threw for 137 yards and a score, as Green Valley rolled up 301 yards on offense.

The Gator special teams also showed a little flash. Branden Lopez and Joseph Waller combined to tackle the Eldorado punter in the back of the end zone for safety in the second quarter, and Mitch Jacobs tacked on a blocked punt in the fourth.

“We have some of the best coaches in the valley, especially our defensive line coaches,” Hershberger said. “Now we just have to look forward to playing at Liberty next week. We have grown up playing them, so we know what they got, and they know what we got. We are just going to give it our all and see what happens.”