The Cupertino Courier

Sports

Woo woos crowd in Monta Vista win

By DICK SPARRER

Carlos Boles has seen enough of Marcus Woo to last him a career.

The Prospect coach stood by last Friday afternoon to watch the Monta Vista back run up 283 all-purpose yards to lead the Matadors to a 34-21 non-league victory over the Panthers in Cupertino.

"Woo had a great day," said Monta Vista coach Jeff Mueller of his senior standout. "He's elusive and he works hard in practice. I wouldn't want to have to tackle him."

"He's had two great days against Prospect," Mueller added. "I know Carlos doesn't want to see him anymore."

Boles agreed.

"Yeah, we don't want to see him again," said Boles. "But we did better against him today than we did last year. We were able to contain him a little better."

A year ago Woo caught eight passes for 267 yards and four touchdowns to drive the Mats to a 42-24 win over the Panthers. This year he only scored three times--on an 80-yard run, a 6-yard reception and an 84-yard kick-off return.

But while Boles wants nothing more to do with Woo, Mueller likely feels the same way about Prospect wide receiver Kendall Hendon. The stingy-fingered 6-foot-2, 175-pound speedster, who scored a touchdown in last year's clash with the Mats, caught nine balls for 161 yards and a touchdown last Friday.

"He's special," said Boles of Hendon. "He gives us a lot of opportunities."

Still, as good as Hendon was on the hot Friday afternoon, it was Woo who wooed the crowd with his quickness and elusive broken field running.

He took off on an 80-yard TD scamper midway through the first period to give Monta Vista the early lead, and he caught a six-yard scoring toss from 6-foot-5 quarterback Alex Atkins to make it 19-0 midway through the second quarter.

When the Panthers answered back with a touchdown a few minutes later to trim the lead to 19-7, Woo took the wind out of Prospect's sails with an 84-yard kick-off return for a score.

Woo finished the day with 120 yards on nine carries and he caught four passes for 79 yards.

Atkins had a solid day for the Matadors, hitting on 8 of 18 passes for 156 yards. He found Matthew Dee twice for 56 yards and Billy Guardino twice for 21 more.

"He stepped up into the pocket a couple of times today," said Mueller of his senior quarterback. "When fundamentally he goes through the processes and reads the way he's supposed to, he does a real good job."

Both offenses were impressive on the day. Monta Vista finished the afternoon with 336 yards of total offense working behind a front wall of tackles Chris Kong and Ahmed Naguib, guards Mike Moustakas and Salman Ahmed and center Byran Frediani.

Prospect countered with 281 total yards.

The coaches, though, each had praise for their defense.

"The defense is doing a lot of good things for us right now," said Mueller, whose squad recovered two fumbles, picked off a pass and sacked Stevenson four times.

And Prospect?

"The defense made all the plays in the second half to give us the opportunity to get back into the game," said Boles, whose club gave up just one touchdown in the final two quarters.

It was almost enough to get the Panthers back into the game.

Monta Vista had scored first on Woo's 80-yard run, then big defensive stops by Kong, Ruby Murugesan, Kevin Bernstein and Peter Kosulin forced the Panthers to turn the ball over on downs at the Prospect 28.

A 53-yard pass from Atkins to Woo off a fake punt got the Matadors into the red zone, and Kota Kojima, who finished with 29 yards on six carries, followed Kong and Moustakas over the left side for the score. Derick Ley kicked the extra point to make it 13-0.

Trevor Sambyal and Dominic Camilleri stopped the Panthers and forced them to punt, and Kojima's 16-yard return gave Monta Vista a short field at the Prospect 43. A 15-yard toss from Atkins to Guardino and a nine-yard run by Matthew Moustakas set up a six-yard scoring pass from Atkins to Woo. Walter shot through to sack Atkins on the two-point try, but the Mats were up 19-0.

Zach Stevenson tossed twice to Hendon for 25 yards and once to Jeremy Eseroma for eight before Natniel Taye made a one-handed grab on Stevenson's 19-yard pass to the corner of the end zone. David Matusewicz kicked the first of his three extra points to cut the lead to 19-7.

It wouldn't stay that way for long. Woo took the kick-off on a hop at his own 16 and raced 84 yards for a score. Kojima ran in for the two-point conversion and Monta Vista would lead 27-7 at the half.

A 40-yard scoring toss from Stevenson to Hendon in the third quarter made it 27-14, but once more Monta Vista answered back, this time with a drive that Matthew Moustakas capped with a five-yard run up the middle. Ley's kick made it 34-14.

There was no quit in the Panthers, though. They scored on the final play of the third quarter to cut the lead to 34-21.

A pass interception by Hendon with 5:47 left to play gave Prospect one last gasp. Stevenson hit Perett Fiaavae over the middle for 18 yards to the Monta Vista 6-yard line, but a fumbled snap was recovered by Frediani a play later and Monta Vista ran out the clock for the win.

Sambyal, Kosulin, Camilleri and Bernstein were the defensive leaders for the Matadors in the win. Sambyal was the top tackler with seven, including a couple of quarterback sacks, and Kosulin, Camilleri and Bernstein were in on six each. Matthew Moustakas was in on three tackles--two of them sacks--and he recovered a fumble, and Andrew Kahng and Murugesan had four tackles apiece.

Woo picked off a pass, Frediani recovered a fumble and Danny Park and Naguib each sacked the quarterback. Kojima, Kahali Mazyar, Guardino, Kong and John Garcia also got in on tackles.

Monta Vista, off to a 3-0 start in the non-league season, will open league play in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League this week when the Matadors visit Cupertino on Sept. 29, 7:30 p.m., in the traditional "Helmet Game." The Pioneers are 1-1-1 for the year.