Prep football: Mission Prep airs it out in win over Morro Bay

Mission Prep senior quarterback Bryce Fledderman threw for five touchdowns and racked up 369 yards passing in a 49-21 win Friday night over Morro Bay.

Seeing Fled

Fledderman had just two incomplete passes in the game. His final stats look like a fantasy player’s dream come true — 24 of 26, 369 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions. He showed touch on fade routes, accuracy on long throws and intelligence on check downs. He completed 18 consecutive passes to end the game, including a 12-for-12 second half.

Fledderman had long passes of 65, 45, 35 and 58 yards, most of which were to speedy wide receiver Angel Sanchez, who torched the Morro Bay secondary despite big cushions to the tune of seven catches for 187 yards and three touchdowns. Joseph Miller played the role of possession receiver and finished the game with seven catches for 95 yards and a touchdown. Miller’s 45-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter put Mission Prep up 14-0, and the Royals carried a 21-7 lead to the locker room.

Corona Carries The Load

Mission Prep had a clear plan to establish the run to help open up the play-action passing game by giving the ball to senior running back Brayden Corona. He opened the scoring with a 3-yard touchdown run and closed the game with 3-yard touchdown catch. He finished the game with 18 carries for 122 yards and two touchdowns.

Emotional Game for Morro Bay

Friday’s game came at the end of an emotional week for the Morro Bay High football team following the death of assistant coach Jim Atchison. Each player wore a black sticker with an “A” printed on it, along with a four-leaf clover on the back of their helmets, a nod to a tattoo that Atchison had on his wrist. The team also honored Atchison, a big Notre Dame fan, by playing the Fighting Irish fight song over the speakers as the team stood at attention before the game.

After the game, players from both teams took a knee at midfield to say a prayer for Atchison led by Morro Bay head coach David Kelley.

Luis Alvarez, Atchison’s nephew, scored on a touchdown in the fourth quarter and appeared to become emotional on the sideline after embracing with assistant coach Paul Merkel. Alvarez had 12 carries for 68 yards in the game.

Hanging In

Morro Bay pulled out all the tricks it could to try to stay close: a reverse halfback pass, fake punt and an onside kick. The Pirates had some success, a 77-yard kickoff return by Josh Skiffington cut Mission Prep’s lead to 21-7 with 40 seconds left before halftime. But Mission Prep followed that with a perfectly executed hurry-up attack and scored to go up 28-7.

Morro Bay senior running back Brandon McGinley had another long touchdown run — 56 yards to make it 28-14 — but he left the field late in the game after hurting his ankle. Without him, and a passing attack that was just 1 of 5 with an interception, Morro Bay couldn’t climb out of the hole.

McGinley finished the game with 10 carries for 77 yards and a touchdown.

What’s Next

The loss in Morro Bay’s first Northern League game puts the Pirates (4-3, 0-1 Northern) in a bad spot with a game against Santa Maria looming next week. The opposite is true for Mission Prep (4-3, 2-0 Northern), who have now won three in a row. Coming off what Mission Prep head coach Chad Henry called his team’s most complete game of the season against Morro Bay, the Royals will take on Nipomo next Friday, the next big hurdle in repeating as league champions.

This story was originally published October 14, 2016 at 11:17 PM with the headline "Prep football: Mission Prep airs it out in win over Morro Bay."