Second half goes south for M-A

Then disaster struck when, on the third play of the half, M-A — a team that hadn’t committed a turnover through the first two weeks of the season — fumbled the ball away. Mitty took over at the Bears’ 36 and went on to score three unanswered touchdowns to hand M-A a 21-0 defeat, its first of the season.

“That was a big deal in the third quarter there,” M-A head coach Chris Saunders said. “It was quite the opposite response you want from your offense when you get the ball and start the third quarter 0-0.”

Mitty (3-0) used the legs of junior running back Raj Washington to grind down the Bears’ defense. Washington carried 20 times for 137 yards and a touchdown.

But it was a pesky screen pass off the right side of the line that accounted for Mitty’s first two scores. Monarchs quarterback Jonah Kroenung completed 8 of 16 pass attempts for just 85 yards, but his short scoring chucks of 2 and 3 yards in the third quarter broke the seal on the deadlock.

“They did such a good job of keeping me on my heels of what pass plays we could get going, trying to get the ball down the field,” Mitty head coach Danny Sullivan said. “[M-A] did a great job of taking away our playmakers too. We knew we just had to buckle down.”

Mitty did just that in seizing on a pivotal penalty during its first possession of the third quarter.

Two plays after taking over on the M-A fumble, the Monarchs themselves fumbled the ball, leaving Kroenung scrambling to recover as Bears linebacker Devin Hyde came flying in. Kroenung began to scoop it up when Hyde came over the top of the pile in an attempt to recover the ball, but a penalty flag flew after Hyde contacted the quarterback. The senior linebacker was called for a personal foul for helmet-to-helmet contact, giving Mitty new life with the ball at the Bears’ 15.

“They called a helmet to helmet,” Saunders said. “I mean, everyone has a right to the football. So, I don’t really know what to say about that.”

“It was big,” Sullivan said. “Pretty hard-hitting game overall. When you get two good teams going at it, you’re going to get some of that. Fortunately for us, it broke in the right favor for us.”

Mitty ultimately advanced into the red zone for first-and-goal from the 8. M-A’s defense held strong, and a third-down stop at the 1 by junior defensive tackle Ikuna Manuofetoa forced forced fourth-and-goal. That’s when Kroenung, out of the shotgun, sprung the short screen to a wide-open Washington that got the Monarchs on the board.

“I think it was a great play call by them,” Saunders said. “I mean, honestly, they played the situation well.”

It was so good, Mitty went back to it again to cap its next scoring drive, a four-play, 48-yard surge, capped by a 3-yard scoring pass from Kroenung to Billy Hutton to make it 14-0.

Two plays later, M-A quarterback Teddy Dacey threw his third interception of the night at the Bears’ 38. It took Mitty three plays to find the end zone on a 4-yard sweep by Washington.

“It was a tough game,” Saunders said. “I think there’s an alternative universe where that game is 21-21 and we’re in overtime right now. We dropped three balls in the end zone for touchdowns.”

The first half, though, was a wire-to-wire, smash-mouth, ground battle, war of attrition. M-A was 2 of 5 on third-down tries and 0 of 2 on fourths in the half, while Mitty faired even worse, going 1 of 5 third-down attempts and 0 of 3 on fourths.

Mitty seemed to catch a break on the penultimate play of the first half. The half appeared to be over as Kroenung, with the ball at M-A’s 36, lofted an incomplete pass toward the end zone with no time remaining on the clock. But the Bears were flagged for roughing the passed, moving the ball into field-goal range for Mitty.

From 38 yards away, Mitty kicker Chase Graff sent a line drive sailing toward the uprights that seemed to have the distance. But the attempt curled wide right to keep the scoreless deadlock in check.

M-A’s best chance was on its first possession. Mitty took the opening kickoff and found a tempo with a 14-yard pass completion from Kroenung to Caden Kelly for a third-down pickup. On the next play, Kroenung ran the bootleg for 16 yards and into M-A territory for another first. But the drive stalled, and M-A linebacker William Roberts came up with an interception on fourth down to put the Bears at the Mitty 46.

The Bears picked up consecutive first downs themselves. On third-and-4, Dacey kept it to move the sticks with a 10 yard gain. Then Dacey hit Jackson Harding on a short slot screen, and Harding advanced 11 yards to the Monarchs’ 24. Two short rushing gains by Evailmalo Ama moved it into the red zone for the only time by either team in the half. But Dacey missed on a timing route to the end zone on third down, and on fourth down his short pass to Joshua Olsen gained just two yards to force a turnover on downs, giving Mitty the ball at its own 17.

M-A went on the move again to start the second quarter. With Mitty turning it over on downs — on fourth-and-4 at the Bears’ 31, Kroenung threw a pass on target for Billy Hutton, but Ama at the cornerback position stayed in step to break it up — the Bears used to short run plays to set up a screen pass to Monty Turner for a 21-yard chunk to the Mitty 42. M-A moved to the 24 on Dacey’s pass to Olsen. But the drive would move no farther, as the Mitty defense stuffed two run plays, and a fourth-down pass attempt to the end zone was underthrown.

The loss was Dacey’s first hiccup in an otherwise fine start to the season. The junior has taken all the snaps for M-A with senior Xander Eschelman on the shelf. Through wins again Bellarmine and Monterey, Dacey was 30-of-38 passing for 427 yards with six TDs against no interceptions.

Dacey was 12-of-24 for 83 yards and three interceptions Friday.

“The first two games, he was more or less lights out,” Saunders said. “So, to come out tonight and have a really tough showing, it was a little bit uncharacteristic of his record so far as a quarterback.”