SILVER CITY, N.M. – Defense reigned supreme early, but the offense fought back with methodical drives and explosive plays, but it wouldn't be enough as the defense held off the offense, 78-67, Saturday in the annual Spring Game at Ben Altamirano Field.



Over the first part of the game, the defense utilized a stifling front line behind Anthony Avina (Lake Elsinore, CA/Lakeside HS), Dylan Contreras (Litchfield Park, AZ/Peoria), Oscar Ceniceros (Canutillo, TX/Canutillo HS), Cody Hawkins (Show Low, AZ/Show Low) and Avery Crump (Los Angeles, CA/Verbum Dei) among others to force change of downs and several turnovers to jump out to a 40-11 lead.

More defensive stops had the lead nearly to 40, 57-19, when the offense began to turn the corner.

Mitch Glasmann (Temecula, CA/Chaparral) helped jump start the offense with a quarterback keeper around the edge on an option play that resulted in a lengthy touchdown and a 57-26 defensive lead.

Just when it seemed the offense was gaining momentum, the defense would come back with the secondary behind Eldrick Bright (Deland, FL/Deland HS), Deshawn Hathorne, Anthony Phillips (Houston, TX/Dobie HS) and Kristian King (Redlands, CA/Redlands East Valley) swatting passes to help the defense post a few points back. Another close rushing touchdown by Cleavon Barnes (Lancaster, CA/Lancaster ) capped a red zone drive with the defense still in charge, 62-35.

After a forced fumble and recovery by the defense with Adrian Lopez (Santa Fe Springs, CA/Garden Grove ) and Darius Guillory (Temecula, CA/Chaparral) in pursuit, the offense caught fire to make things interesting.

Michael Ball (West Covina, CA/Rowland) got loose in the corner for a nice touchdown catch and then a Brent Courtney (Oceanside CA/Carlsbad HS) catch and run for six left the offense behind by just 14, 68-54.

The lead would get trimmed to 11, 72-61, on another touchdown pass, but that would be as close as the offense would get. The defense would respond with a pair of stops and then an option pitch TD provided the final score of 78-67.

The offense line did well throughout most of the game, with Michael Coe (Carlsbad, CA/Carlsbad), Zayde Khalil (Murrieta, CA/Vista Murrieta), Zachary Andrews and Jacob Costilow (Wildomar, CA/Elsinore) among others limiting the pressure on the quarterbacks after early heat at the start of the game. Donald Byrd (Long Beach, CA/Long Beach Poly) and Larry Young also grabbed a couple of big passes. Quarterbacks Darrell Johnson (Palmdale, CA/Rosamond) and Kyle Boudreaux (Baton Rouge, LA/Belaire ) also saw significant time and led the offense on scoring drives throughout the afternoon.

The Spring Game wraps up the spring portion for the Mustangs. The group with reassemble in August to prep for the 2014 regular season.