Van Nuys turned it on in Second Half to win big over the Cobras

The Van Nuys Wolves have not played in a playoff quarterfinal in over a decade. They hosted Miguel Contreras on Friday night with an opportunity to break that streak and put a stamp in the Ken Osorio era of Wolves football. After a bit of a slow start, Van Nuys took control of the game in the second half and came away with a big 31-6 victory.

Van Nuys started with a bang, getting deep into Cobras territory. The drive stalled out at the 11-yard line, but Leelen Castro nailed the first of his three field goal attempts to give Van Nuys a 3-0 lead three minutes into the game. The teams would trade possession until Contreras broke through past the midway point of the second quarter. Junior Randy Jones bulldozed his way for a 5-yard touchdown rush. The Cobras attempted the two-point conversion with a designed quarterback run, but Van Nuys stood tall and got the stop.

The Wolves would respond on their very next possession. Marlon Figueroa stampeded his way to a 37-yard touchdown run less than two minutes later. Van Nuys would follow that score with another defensive stop with time on the clock before halftime and timeouts to burn. The Wolves again drove the field but met some controversy near the end of the half. They attempted to spike the ball out of shotgun formation to conserve their final timeout. This was ruled as intentional grounding, as the old rules did not allow the quarterback to spike the ball unless under center. Following the ruling, Van Nuys ran the clock down to 4 seconds before using their timeout. Castro trotted onto the field and coolly drilled his second field goal through the uprights as time expired for a 13-6 lead at halftime.

Midway through the third quarter, Van Nuys worked their way back into field goal range and Castro was good again, this time from 32 yards out to extend the lead to 16-6. With just over one minute left in the quarter, Figueroa added to the lead when he hit the edge and turned the corner, leaving a trail of Cobras behind as he broke a 78-yard touchdown run and a 23-6 lead following the extra point.

Van Nuys was not done yet. They marched the field yet again, and this time senior Julian Garcia punched the ball in from 2 yards out and the Wolves converted the 2-point attempt with a run from quarterback Carlos Herrera. That capped the scoring at 31-6, and after another defensive stop, the Wolves ran out the clock to reach their first quarterfinals since 2012.

Van Nuys will now face Taft, who demolished Dymally 48-6, on Friday night. The Wolves and Toreadors will face off on Gotten Field at Taft high school with kickoff set for 7:00 p.m.