KING CITY — With a 49-0 win over the visiting North Monterey County Condors, and losses by two of the teams currently in second place in the Mission South, the King City Mustangs are division champions by virtue of having a two-game lead, with one game to be played.
With the victory, the Mustangs improved to 4-0 in the Mission South and are a perfect 9-0 overall. On Saturday, King City closes out the regular season at Pebble Beach against the 2-2 Robert Louis Stevenson Pirates.
“Sitting at 9-0 with one game left, we haven’t accomplished what we set out to do, and that’s to win all 10 regular season games,” said King City head coach Mac Villanueva. “Knowing that we have the Mission South title wrapped up doesn’t change our mindset. We know that we have to win our 10th game to assure us of a home playoff game. That’s what we are playing for.”
One of the highlights of the Mustangs’ ninth-straight win was running back Carson Tidwell passing 5,000 yards of his own career rushing yards record.
Tidwell entered the Condors game needing just 27 yards to reach 5,000 total yards. He ran for 177 yards on nine carries and scored three touchdowns, pushing the record to 5,150 yards for his career.
“(Tidwell) passed Mark Scaroni last year as the school’s all-time leader in rushing yards,” Villanueva said. “He broke Scaroni’s career record of 2,670 yards.”
King City wasted little time taking over the game against the Condors as Tidwell scored on a 36-yard run, and ended the first quarter with a 39-yard touchdown run by Tidwell. Bryan Gonzales was successful on both PATs for the 14-0 Mustang lead.
Tidwell rushed for one yard on his first carry, ran for eight yards on his second carry, and set his own career rushing mark on a 35-yard run.
In the second quarter, the host team went to the air with quarterback Rocky Vasquez throwing a 39-yard touchdown pass to Kody Lambert. The Mustangs finished the quarter with a 34-yard scoring run by Tidwell, and Lambert scored his second touchdown of the game on a 21-yard pass from Vasquez. Gonzales kicked all the PATs on the scoring spree that had the Mustangs leading 35-0 to end the first half.
With a running clock, the Mustangs completed the scoring with a nine-yard pass play from Vasquez to Rocky Villanueva in the third quarter, and a 47-yard run by Noel Lara for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Gonzales added the two PATs after the final scores, to make the final 49-0.
Vasquez finished the game with a seven-of-12 passing performance for 177 yards and three touchdowns. Lambert led the Mustang receivers with five receptions for 96 yards and two touchdowns. JC Navarro had one reception for 13 yards and Rocky Villanueva had one reception for nine yards and a touchdown.
