Turnovers and penalties plagued Laguna Creek High School in the preseason, and head coach Mark Nill warned that could not continue in the Delta Valley Conference if they wanted to win games.

He was right.

Turnovers proved to be costly for the Laguna Creek as they lost their Delta Valley Conference opener, 42-28 to Monterey Trail at Mark Macres Memorial Stadium last Friday.

“We had some unfortunate things happen to us with the interceptions,” said Nill. “I felt that both teams had struggles stopping the other but because of those turnovers, we had our momentum stopped.”

The Cardinals are now up to eight turnovers on the season, with six interceptions and two lost fumbles.

Both teams are now 3-3.

Laguna Creek has lost three straight since starting 3-0. Monterey Trail has won three of its last four since losing the first two.

“We played a little sloppy tonight and had some down moments of the game that rattled the [players’] cages,” he said. “Luckily we were able force turnovers and scored points off of them.”

Monterey Trail was able to score 15 points off Cardinal turnovers.

With Laguna Creek up 14-7 in the middle of the second quarter, quarterback Jordan Ares threw an interception to Ricky Castaneda, who returned it 35 yards for a touchdown.

Monterey Trail added the two-point conversion on Castaneda’s fake field goal pass to Jeffery Malm-Annan for a 15-14 lead.

Castaneda had two interceptions, the second coming off of Kyle Shepherd at the beginning of the third quarter. Malm-Annan also had an interception.

“We have such good teams in the league that I don’t feel like we’re undefeated,” said Ewing. “We need to keep practicing and get more consistent. That and confidence take time. The guys just need to get more reps together. We settled down tonight and finished good.”

Laguna Creek started the game out strong seemingly forcing a Mustang punt just three plays into the game.

Monterey Trail, however, fooled the Cardinals on a direct snap to Castaneda, who then handed the ball off to Malm-Annan for a 57-yard gain down to the Laguna Creek 6-yard line. 

Trey Flurry scored the six-yard touchdown two plays later to put the Mustangs up 7-0 on the first drive.

Flurry ran for 148 yards with two touchdowns, and Malm-Annan had a team-high 171 yards and a touchdown.

Continuing to give Shepherd, a two-way starter, more rest, Laguna Creek shuffled their two quarterbacks throughout the game. Both quarterbacks had mixed results.

Despite combining for three interceptions, Ares did connect with Shaq Cornelius for a 34-yard touchdown.

He completed just two passes for 54 yards. 

Cornelius finished the game with eight receptions for 188 yards, with most of that coming from Shepherd.

Ahead 21-14 at the half, Monterey Trail pushed that margin to two possessions on Malm-Annan’s 49-yard touchdown run on their first drive of the second half.

Getting the ball back yet again after Shepard’s interception, Monterey Trail drove downfield and scored on a six-yard run by Flurry.

Laguna Creek cut into that deficit on Shepard’s 14-yard touchdown pass to Cornelius to close out the third quarter.

Shepherd completed 12 of 26 passes for 197-yards, but he finished with a season-low five rushing yards.

Laguna Creek only rushed for 67 yards, also a season low.

“We’re still learning,” said Nill. “They stopped us tonight, and we didn’t finish.”

Monterey Trail travels to Del Paso Heights on Friday to take on Grant.

Last year, Monterey Trail lost an exciting game to the Pacers, 28-22.

The Cardinals hosts Davis on Friday.

“We’re going to go back to the drawing board again and put a game plan together,” said Nill. “Hopefully we can pull it together and win against a much better Blue Devils team.”

The Laguna Creek-Davis game will be a ‘pink-out’ at Elk Grove-Laguna Creek Community Stadium in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Nathan Lowery is a Laguna Creek High School journalism student.