Banks, Jaguars prevail

After watching the display Banks put on in the second half of Friday night’s season-opening 34-31 victory at Foothill, Bennett might have discovered another star.

“We found out in the scrimmage that we were going to have a thunder and lightning situation,” Bennett said. “We noticed that he’s a real nice change of pace from Michael Ball.”

Banks scored his third touchdown of the second half on an 80-yard run with 2:19 to play to provide the winning points.

It was the first play of the drive after Aaron Dupin connected with Marcus Hurtado on a 94-yard scoring pass to put the Falcons in front.

“I don’t think I felt like I needed to make a play,” Banks said. “I just felt like I had to step up my play for the team. The line blocked right on that play, and the hole was there for me.”

It was the second time in the game Banks made a play to steal the momentum back from Foothill.

After the Falcons scored 17 unanswered points in the second quarter to take a 17-14 halftime edge, Banks returned the opening kickoff of the second half 95 yards for a score.

“I knew when Coach gave me the opportunity, I could help the team,” Banks said.

That opportunity came when a leg injury limited Ball’s second-half carries. Despite the reduced workload, Ball ran for 95 yards on 13 carries, including a 62-yard touchdown.

Banks added a 56-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter that gave the sixth-ranked Jaguars the lead. He finished with 155 yards and two scores on eight carries.

Banks’ heroics overshadowed a monster day for Foothill’s passing attack, most notably a five-catch, 198-yard performance by Hurtado.

He caught two touchdown passes, including the go-ahead 94-yarder with 2:33 to play.

Dupin completed 15 of 30 passes for 288 yards but did not get Foothill close enough in the final moments to allow Tommy Silvas to attempt what would have been a game-tying field goal.

The Falcons would not have had to get far.

Silvas had given Foothill its first lead of the game with a 52-yard field goal midway through the second quarter.

After falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter, Hurtado scored on a 25-yard pass on a third-and-24 play, and Derek Muaava ran in a score from 2 yards out to tie the game.

Muaava ran for 45 yards on 14 carries and added a fumble recovery in the Desert Pines end zone that gave the Falcons the lead late in the third quarter.

In the end, the Jaguars made too many big plays. In fact, Desert Pines’ second touchdown, a 43-yard pass from Dalton Leilua to Joshua Williams, was its shortest scoring play of the game.

Williams finished with five catches for 66 yards.