Legacy whips Arbor View in Battle of the Bulls game

By Anthony Fenech

Friday, Sept. 18 | 2:05 a.m.

Two herds of bulls entered the ring Thursday night, and as the first half ended, only one of those herds looked ready to fight.

It was the annual Battle of the Bulls game between the Arbor View Aggies and the Legacy Longhorns, and thanks to a smothering Legacy defense and a standout senior, the Longhorns bull-rushed the Aggies early.

A 19-point halftime lead carried them to a 32-7 victory.

“From what we’ve been hearing, we haven’t been playing up to our potential,” running back Deshae Edwards said. “So we really had to step it up tonight and, you know, we really stepped it up early.”

Edwards continued his run through Northwest Division opponents by collecting 218 yards on 22 carries and adding three touchdowns, his seventh in the team’s past two games.

“We knew we had to come out hard and fast,” coach David Snyder Jr. said. “They’re a good football team and if we would have let them get momentum, we would have been in trouble.”

Edwards provided flash to the defense’s smash, powering through an Aggies defender on his first touchdown run, a 50-yarder, hurdling over another defender on his second, a 19-yarder, and capping his night with a shifty display of jukes on a 36-yard run late in the third quarter.

All game long, Longhorns defenders continually harassed the Arbor View offense, creating four turnovers, all of which resulted in Legacy scores on their ensuing possessions.

“We play a swarming defense,” Snyder said. “We like to get as many guys to the ball as we can, and it was effective tonight.”

With just more than five minutes to play, defensive back Marcus McCollum put a fitting exclamation point on the victory with a 50-yard interception return for Legacy’s final score. He ran untouched to the goal line, where Arbor View’s DeMarlo Virgil knocked him in while attempting a touchdown-saving tackle.

“They’re a big, strong, well-coached team,” Aggies coach Dan Barnson said. “But we shot ourselves in the foot too much in the first half.”

“It happens,” he said, referring to the three first-half fumbles. “Sometimes you get a bad luck string going. We work ball-handling drills all week and sometimes it just happens like that.”

Arbor View (1-3) looks to regroup next week against Cheyenne, while Legacy (4-0) travels to Virgin Valley in hopes of continuing to boost its playoff prospects in what is shaping up to be a crowded Northwest Division.

“This was a big victory for us, but it really doesn’t mean anything,” said Edwards. “Now we head to the meaty part of our schedule.”