Cupertino coach Jay Braun would certainly agree. Because his Pioneers didn't play all that well last Friday, but they played well enough to beat El Camino High 21-12 in a non-league game.

"We didn't feel like we played all that well," said Braun after his club posted its second win of the young season. "We're definitely far from peaking."

Still, the Pioneers battled back from a 5-0 deficit to pull out the win over El Camino a week after they had opened the season with a win over Independence.

"El Camino is a very good ballclub, and they have a lot of heart," said Braun of his club's Friday foe.

But Cupertino showed a lot of heart, too, fighting back after falling behind early in the game.

El Camino blocked a punt out of the end zone and kicked a field goal to take a 5-0 lead in the first quarter. Cupertino came storming back with two touchdowns in the second period to lead 14-5 at intermission. Then, after El Camino scored in the fourth to cut the lead to 14-12, the Pioneers scored again in the fourth to clinch the win.

Jonathan Price had a big night for the Pioneers. The senior running back, who raced for 1,023 yards a year ago, scored on runs of 36 and 21 yards and finished the night with 164 yards on 21 carries. He had a third touchdown run nullified because of a penalty.

Junior quarterback Todd Fitzgerald hooked up on 5 of 14 passes for 42 yards in the win, including a 16-yard touchdown pass to tight end Joey Puccinelli, who caught the ball in the back of the end zone.

"[Fitzgerald] is doing a good job of improving, a good job of hustling and scrambling around," said the coach.

"But there were five drops," said Braun, indicating that his club his having trouble catching the football right now. "And we've got to get better up front."

"Offensively, we're struggling a little," added the coach. "We're got to learn to capitalize on turnovers and field position."

The defense certainly did its job, recovering four fumbles to give the offense the good field position. Price forced two of the fumbles, including one in the fourth quarter that was recovered by Jason Gray to set up Cupertino's final touchdown. Fitzgerald, Donovan Lazarro and Kyle Richard also recovered fumbles for the Pioneers.

Returning all-leaguer Nick Ramirez-Baker was the defensive star for Cupertino. The senior linebacker was in 19 tackles, five of them for losses.

"He had a great game again," said Braun of Ramirez-Baker. "He's all over the place."

The coach added that Puccinelli came through with a clutch quarterback late in the game and that Matt Ravadge made a key sack.

"Our defense was on the field a lot more than we would have liked them to be," said Braun. "We gave up some yards, but we're bending and not breaking. I'm proud of the way our defense is stopping 'em in the red zone."

Cupertino will take its 2-0 record on the road to visit Los Gatos on Sept. 25 in another non-league game. The Wildcats are 1-1 after losing 17-7 to St. Francis last Friday. The loss snapped a 40-game undefeated string for the Cats.

"They'll come out real hard," said Braun of Los Gatos. "They're big up front, they execute well and they play good football."

Mustangs fall

Chris Morris had a career night.

But even a four-touchdown, 213-yard effort by the junior fullback wasn't enough to lead the Homestead football team to a victory in a non-league game against Capuchino last Friday at Fremont High School's Diesner Field.

The Mustangs built up a 35-19 lead, but Capuchino battled from behind to pull out a 38-35 victory.

The loss left the Mustangs 1-1 in the young season. They had opened the year with a 31-14 non-league win over Andrew Hill. Homestead will try to get back on the winning track this week when the Mustangs host Monta Vista on Sept. 26, 3:15 p.m.

Morris carried most of the load last week when the Mustangs rolled up 265 yards on the ground against Capuchino. His 213 yards rushing helped Homestead jump out to the early lead, only to see Capuchino come back for the win.

Homestead led 21-19 at intermission, then added to that lead with two touchdowns in the third quarter.

Morris scored on a 3-yard run and Eric Dodge kicked the extra point to up the Homestead lead to 28-19 early in the third. Greg Jackson recovered a fumble a few minutes later, and Morris capitalized with his fourth touchdown run of the night and Dodge booted his fifth extra point.

The Mustangs led 35-19 with 7:29 left to play in the third quarter, but that's when Capuchino started to right back.

Capuchino's Mustangs scored with 1:44 left in the third to cut the lead to 35-25, then returned a punt for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter to make it 35-31.

Capuchino took advantage of a pass interference penalty to score again in the fourth to move in front 38-35.

Homestead had one last chance to pull out the win, but the Mustangs fumbled the ball away on the Capuchino 25-yard line in the final moments of play.

Capuchino actually scored first in the game, but Homestead answered back quickly when Morris returned the kick off 75 yards for a TD. Dodge kicked the first of his five extra points to give the Mustangs a 7-6 lead.

Cephus Brown, who had intercepted a pass early in the game, ran 20 yards for a second-period touchdown.

After Capuchino scored again to make it 14-12 in the see-saw game, the Mustangs moved the ball again, thanks a 9-yard run by Brown and a 23-yard dash by Tim Kimball. But a fumble ended the threat, and Capuchino came storming back.

The visiting Mustangs moved all the way to the Homestead 1-yard line, but then they fumbled the ball away. A play later, Morris was off to the races on a 99-yard touchdown run.

Matadors lose

With a victory in week one of the 2003 season, the Monta Vista Matadors matched their entire win production of the previous year, and they were hungry for win No. 2 when they played host Willow Glen Saturday night at Cupertino.

But it seems that the Rams had other ideas. Willow Glen battled back from an early deficit to roll to a 45-7 non-league victory. The Rams improved to 2-0 in the young season with the win.

Still, early in the game it looked like it might be Monta Vista's night.

The Matadors took the opening kick off, and quarterback Jason Dias came out firing. After getting one first down, it looked like the drive was stalled as they lined up to punt. But coach Jeff Mueller reached into his bag of tricks and the snap went to Dias as the short back, and he lofted a 33-yard pass to tight end Ben Cohen for a first down.

On the next play, Dias zipped a 19 yarder to wide receiver Michael Butler for a touchdown. Ben Lovelace converted and the Matadors had a 7-0 lead almost before the Rams knew what had happened.

It looked like it could be a long night for the Rams, but it was a long way from being over. Willow Glen would come back to score 45 unanswered points on the road to the victory.

Monta Vista would threaten just once more in the game. Late in the contest, the Matadors reached into their bag of tricks once more and began to run a hurry-up offense. It took the Rams by surprise and it looked like it would work as Dias completed a couple of quick passes to Reed Calkins and tight end Dan Kobylenski.

The drive bogged down and stalled at the 15 where the Matadors attempted a 32-yard field goal that was no good. The half ended with no further threats.After their only scoring drive of the game in the first quarter, Monta Vista's offense was frustrated the rest of the night. Dias ended with 110 yards on seven completions to six different players—all in the first half.

Bob Scudder contributed to this story.