Arbor View football beats Shadow Ridge behind Thaddeus Thatcher

Most football teams dread third-and-long situations. Arbor View embraced those opportunities Friday night.

The Aggies were 6-for-10 on third down, including three conversions of nine or more yards, en route to a 45-28 road win over Shadow Ridge.

“Those were big moments for us,” Arbor View coach Matt Gerber said. “That is a sign that we’re improving. We’ve had some problems with that the first two weeks. So to hear those numbers, that makes me feel a hell of a lot better that we’re getting to the point where we can start to compete and move the ball offensively.”

The Aggies (1-2, 1-0) opened the season 0-2 against out-of-state teams but rebounded in their first game in Class 5A Division I against Shadow Ridge (3-1, 0-1).

Freshman quarterback Thaddeus Thatcher was excellent on third down, completing 7 of 8 passes. He also completed an 8-yard pass on fourth-and-7 to help set up a 23-yard TD pass to sophomore Jayden Williams that made it 17-0 with 48 seconds left in the first half.

“He did a great job,” Gerber said of Thatcher. “He started off a little bit as a freshman, he made some freshman mistakes. But he’s coming into his own. The thing I love about the kid is he doesn’t get too high, doesn’t get too low. He just stays even-keeled.”

Thatcher completed 19 of 22 passes for 343 yards and four touchdowns, three going to Williams. And he was able to guide scoring drives to answer each of Shadow Ridge’s four second-half touchdowns.

“We’ve been working on a lot of new schemes,” Thatcher said. “This was all a bunch of new stuff that we’re working on. We put it all together. We looked really great. I’m proud of my receivers, I’m proud of my line. Just a really good game.”

Thatcher and the Aggies opened the game on a strong note, scoring on the game’s opening drive with a 45-yard TD pass to Williams with 10:38 to go in the first quarter.

Williams also caught a 38-yard scoring pass from Thatcher that made it 24-7 with 8:02 to go in the third quarter. On that play, Thatcher avoided the rush, directed traffic down field and hit Williams inside the 10-yard line. Williams was then able to tiptoe through multiple defenders for his third TD.

“He’s a hell of an athlete, and as he learns the offense, he’s starting to direct more things,” Gerber said of Thatcher. “He made a couple passes tonight where he’s directing guys out there on the fly. It’s something you don’t see out of freshmen too often.

“I’ve been coaching this for a long time, and you don’t see freshman quarterbacks come in and do what he’s doing.”

Williams had nine catches for 172 yards, and freshman Kai Cypher added four catches for 96 yards, including a 56-yard TD pass from Thatcher.

“I’ve been really trying to work on my scrambling, getting out of the pocket and making throws,” Thatcher said. “It really showed tonight.”

Senior Makhai Donaldson had 15 carries for 63 yards, including a 30-yard TD run, for Arbor View. Freshman Makhai Donaldson added 61 yards on five carries, including a 14-yard scoring scamper for the Aggies.

Fifteen of Thatcher’s 19 completions went to freshmen or sophomores.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys on offense, and I think it kind of showed in the first half,” Gerber said. “Yeah, we were up 17-0, but we could have easily been up 35-0.

“We’ve got some kids that can make plays, they’re just really green right now, and they’re learning the varsity game.”

Shadow Ridge quarterback Coen Coloma had 92 yards and four touchdowns on 21 carries. But the Mustangs were hurt by two first-half turnovers and another errant option pitch that helped Arbor View take the early lead.