Dawg Pack falls to first-place Murrieta

Ramona Pop Warner’s Dawg Pack knew that Murrieta was going to be the toughest opponent the team had faced all season, and they were right.

At the end of four quarters, however, the score of 22-44 really didn’t tell the story of how hard the Dawg Pack fought on the field.

Both offenses just let loose on Saturday with Murrieta scoring five minutes into the game. Ramona answered on the next drive, shocking the Hawkeye defense, which hadn’t given up a score in the first quarter all season. After a 30-yard reception by Tyler Vargas, Ramona’s quarterback threw again to Erik Schmidt, who stood alone in the end zone and made the reception for the touchdown.

But Murrieta’s running game was on fire and the Hawkeyes scored twice more before the half ended.

The Dawg Pack came back in the third quarter when quarterback Garrett Binkley took the ball on the 40 yard line and juked and spun his way all the way to the end zone, bringing the team within one touchdown of a tied game.

Once again though, the Hawkeyes struck back with a spectacular pass, showing why they are undefeated. But the Dawg Pack has a great passing game, too, and showed it on the next drive when Binkley hit Gabriel Plendcio on the 5 yard line. On the next play, Binkley took the ball into the end zone.

After the game, Coach Paul Michaelis told the boys not to be disappointed.

“You boys weren’t supposed to be able to score on this team,” he said. “You really made me proud.”