Penalty-prone Aggies dominate Mustangs

Thomas Flanagan ran for 88 yards on 12 carries including touchdowns runs of 25- and 2-yards to lead visting Arbor View to 34-3 win over Shadow Ridge (0-5, 0-4 Northwest) on Friday.

DeMarlo Virgil led all rushers with 120 yards including a 17-yard score in the first quarter for the Aggies (3-3, 2-3). 

Arbor View’s Christian Rodriguez opened the scoring with a  20-yard run on the third play of the game after Allen Jackson recovered a Shadow Ridge fumble the play before.

The Aggies committed 13 penalties for more than 140 yards but coach Dan Barnson seemed happy just to have another win.

“It happens. You have to play through it and focus more,” Barnson said. “They were missing (Shadow Ridge running back Zak) Hill tonight and it’s tough to overcome an injury like that.”

Hill is out for the season after suffering a neck injury against Palo Verde last week.

The Mustangs looked like a team missing its leading rusher; the Aggies dominated the ground game, outrushing Shadow Ridge 272-(minus 13).

Brian Vignaud had two interceptions for the Aggies including a 26-yard return for a touchdown at the end of the third quarter that put the game out of reach.

Arbor View has one more “tune-up” game next week with Faith Lutheran before heading to Palo Verde the following week. Regardless, Barnson said his team will not be looking ahead to the Panthers.

“It’s homecoming next week, so we’ll be excited,” he added. “We take every game one at a time.”