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Yard Fight: Westmont's Mike Jiosa fights for yardage in last week's 54-17 win over Andrew Hill. Jiosa scored two touchdowns in the victory.
Photograph by Tsutomu Fujita
Blankenship stars for Westmont
Day, Zelinski lead Panthers to wins
By Dick Sparrer
Go Falcons! That's the cry coming up at Westmont right about now, because the Warriors are really pulling for Andrew Hill to wrap up the 2001 football season with a victory.
It may not have appeared that the Warriors were Hill football fans last Friday night when they were drubbing the Falcons 54-17. But they sure are now.
You see, the Westmont win helped the Warriors improve to 3-1 in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League. And there's only one team ahead of them in the league standings: You guessed it--Hill's final opponent of the season, Gunderson.
The Grizzlies are 4-0 in league play after an impressive win over Overfelt last week. So Westmont's only hope of even nailing a first-place tie is for Gunderson to lose at least one of the final two games and for the Warriors to win out.
Westmont will try to do just that when the team visits Silver Creek on Nov. 3, 1:30 p.m., and hosts Del Mar on Nov. 9, 7:15 p.m.
Gunderson will close out league play at home against Del Mar on Nov. 3, 1:30 p.m., before facing Hill on Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m., at PAL Stadium.
So Westmont will be pulling for the Falcons to finish the year with a victory. And the Warriors wouldn't mind seeing the Dons come up with a win this Saturday.
Any cheering for the Falcons, though, was certainly not evident last Friday night when Westmont pounded Hill 54-17.
Junior quarterback Bryen Blankenship tossed five touchdown passes, three of them to senior wide receiver Connor McDonald, to lead the Warriors to the lopsided victory.
Westmont dominated the game from the opening kick off. Blankenship pitched three TD tosses in the first quarter to help the Warriors jump out to a 19-0 lead, then he threw another one in the second as Westmont built up a 40-3 lead by intermission.
The Warriors opened the scoring when junior tight end Brian Gellman hauled in a 33-yard touchdown pass from Blankenship. The quarterback went back to the air to hit McDonald with scoring strikes of 32 and 11 yards. Ben Peterson kicked the extra point after the third touchdown, and the Warriors were on top 19-0.
Hill got on the scoreboard with a field goal early in the second period, but powerful Westmont answered with three scores.
Blankenship hit McDonald with a 33-yard touchdown pass, then junior Mike Jiosa scored on a 6-yard run. Senior linebacker Aremon Habibi picked off a pass and raced 25 yards for a touchdown before the half and the Warriors led 40-3. Peterson converted after each second-quarter touchdown.
But the Warriors weren't finished. Blankenship hit Jiosa with a 71-yard touchdown strike, then the quarterback ran one in from 16 yards out to open the fourth quarter. Two more extra points by Peterson put Westmont up 54-3.
Hill scored two touchdowns late in the game to make the final 54-17.
Myers leads Dons
Senior quarterback Greg Myers scored a couple of touchdowns and passed for two more, but it wasn't enough to keep Del Mar from dropping a 38-28 decision to Silver Creek in the Santa Teresa Division of the BVAL.
Myers flipped a 10-yard TD toss to D.J. Eddy in the first quarter, then, after the Raiders scored, Myers blasted over on a 1-yard run. Eric Martin converted after each score, and the Dons were up 14-7 after a quarter.
But the Raiders scored on a field goal and a touchdown in the second period to lead 16-14 at intermission, then scored again in the third to up their lead to 23-14.
Myers, though, went back to work and hit Eddy with a 57-yard touchdown pass. Martin's third kick cut the Silver Creek lead to 23-21.
The Raiders answered with a touchdown to close out the third and another to open the fourth to go up 35-21. But there was no quit in the Dons. They fought back again, this time on another 1-yard run by Myers and a Martin kick.
Del Mar had cut the lead to 35-28 with the score, but a late field goal helped the Raiders clinch the win.
The loss left the Dons 1-2-1 in the division and 1-6-1 for the season. They face a tough test this week when they travel to Gunderson on Nov. 3, 1:30 p.m., to face the first-place Grizzlies.
Panthers slip to 0-8
Prospect slipped to 0-8 for the year after a lopsided 35-0 non-league loss to Piedmont Hills last Friday night.
The Panthers will return to play in the Santa Teresa Division this week when they host Andrew Hill on Nov. 3, 1:30 p.m. The Falcons enter the game 0-3-1 in the division and 2-5-1 for the year following the 54-17 loss to Westmont last week.
Ryan Schaefers led the Prospect offense with 76 yards on 13 carries, and David Katz added 21 yards on four tries, but that was the bulk of the attack for the Panthers in the loss to the Pirates. Schaefers, who had a 39-yard run in the game, also caught a pass for eight yards and led the club with 11 tackles, including a sack of the Piedmont quarterback.
Steven Vidal hit on just 2 of 8 passes for 11 yards and Adam Day completed 1 of 2 tosses for eight yards for Prospect. Mike Reclusado had a catch for nine yards.
Ted Piggins supported Schaefers' effort on defense, getting in on six tackles and intercepting a pass. Austin Baumgarten was in on five tackles for the Panthers.
Day, Zelinski lead Panthers
In BVAL cross country action, Prospect ran wins over Leigh, Hill and Westmont in boys action in the Santa Teresa Division of the circuit.
Junior Austin Day was the top Prospect finisher and Mik Song was second for the Panthers as they ran to wins over Leigh and Hill. Day covered the 2.85-mile Alum Rock Park course in 17:52 with Song running 18:02.
Andrew Tupper led Westmont to a split with Santa Teresa and Independence the same day. Tupper, a sophomore, ran 17:50 to lead the Warriors to the win over the 76ers, but they lost to the Saints.
Day came back to run 17:42 to lead the Panthers to a 17-38 win over Westmont a week later at Alum Rock.
In girls action, Danielle Zelinski ran strong for Prospect, but the Panthers lost a 15-50 decision to Westmont. Prospect ran an incomplete team in the race, but Zelinski was impressive, running fifth in 20:59 among all of the competitors from the division. Teammate Becky Palm was sixth in 21:04.
A week earlier, Zelinski was fifth in 20:16 with Palm sixth in 21:41 at the division meet.
Westmont's Liz Medicot was the first Westmont finisher, and she was 10th overall in 22:44 to lead the Warriors to wins over Santa Teresa and Independence.
St. Francis Invitational
Westmont's Tupper and Prospect's Song were solid finishers at the Oct. 18 running of the St. Francis Invitational at Foothill Junior College.
Tupper covered the 3-mile course in 19:06 to finish 17th in the sophomore boys division, and Song ran 19:07 to nail 19th in the junior boys race.
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Campbell, California
