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Prosia's leg saves error-prone Golden Eagles

Brad Byler, Special to the News

Published September 1, 2007 at midnight

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HIGHLANDS RANCH - The opening drive made it look like the Class 5A Continental League matchup between rivals Ponderosa and Mountain Vista on Friday night would be a high- scoring shootout.

But Mountain Vista's 13-10 victory at Shea Stadium was far from a fireworks display. The No. 8 Golden Eagles overcame a bundle of opening-game mistakes to eke out the victory on a 28-yard field goal by Phil Prosia in the fourth quarter.

With 4:01 remaining, Prosia, who twice came up short on 54- yard attempts, hit his second field goal of the fourth quarter. The Mountain Vista defense then snuffed out a final comeback attempt by Ponderosa.

"Phil has a huge leg, and it takes a lot of pressure off of us," Mountain Vista quarterback Eric Anderson said. "He came through for us (Friday)."

Prosia's winner practically swept away the four fumbles and two interceptions committed by the Golden Eagles, and Patrick Mahnke gave Mountain Vista's struggling offense a huge assist on special teams.

Mahnke blocked a Ponderosa punt in the second quarter to set up the Golden Eagles' first touchdown, which helped tie the score 7-7, and he recovered a botched punt return by the Mustangs early in the fourth quarter to set up a Prosia field goal that knotted it at 10-10.

Ponderosa struck on the first possession of the game when quarterback Kris Kreymborg scrambled for a 53-yard touchdown run, and the Mustangs defense bottled up Mountain Vista's offense in the first half.

Led by linebacker Jon Major, who practically lived in the Golden Eagles backfield early, the Mustangs held Mountain Vista to only 57 total yards in the opening half.

"We have a lot of new guys on the offense, and in the first half we couldn't really get anything going," said Anderson, who passed for 131 yards. "But we finally got in a groove and got a big drive."

Ponderosa coach Randy Huff was disappointed with the loss, but he didn't think the Mustangs wasted their defensive effort.

"We learned from this and we'll draw from it," he said. "We know what our breakdowns were. There is no such thing as a wasted great effort."

Ponderosa......7 0 3 0 - 10
Mountain Vista......0 7 0 6 - 13

First quarter

P - Kris Kreymborg 53 run (Mike Geiger kick).

Second quarter

MV - Keaton Ohara 11 pass from Eric Anderson (Phil Prosia kick).

Third quarter

P - Mike Geiger 43 field goal.

Fourth quarter

MV - Prosia 21 field goal. MV - Prosia 28 field goal.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing - P, Kreymborg 19-126, Mohamed Yasser 1-3, Mike Segura 1-(minus 1), Luke Stukey 6-(minus 4); MV, Eric Longoria 27-89, Adam Paranka 1-5, Eric Ertelt 1-0, Anderson 11-(minus 27).

Passing - P, Kreymborg 10-23-34-1; MV, Anderson 10-22-131-2, Longoria 0-1-0-0.

Receiving - P, Stukey 4-7, Chad Vorwaller 1-10, Shea Murray 1-8, Mike Morin 1-6, Luke Curtis 1-4, Ronnie Searle 1-1, Mike Segura 1-minus 2; MV, Smith 3-60, Longoria 3-33, Ohara 2-15, Cole Seibel 1-19, Ertelt 1-4.