The Cupertino Courier

Sports

Rogers' big day leads the Mustangs to win

By Dick Sparrer

Kevin Rogers knew that he had to wake up his Homestead teammates.

The Mustangs started slowly against the Lynbrook football team on Friday afternoon at Homestead, trailing 16-6 just over a minute into the second quarter.

Instead of going around and physically shaking each of his teammates, though, Rogers found a different way to wake up the Mustangs--by running to daylight.

Rogers carried 23 times for 322 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Mustangs to an impressive, important 40-16 victory over the Vikings.

The win threw the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League into virtually a three-team race heading into the final week of the regular season. Saratoga beat Gunn 59-30 to improve to 4-1 (6-3 overall) and Homestead (7-1-1) and Monta Vista (4-4-1) share second place with 3-1-1 records.

The Mustangs finish up league play against Cupertino (0-5, 0-9) on Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m., at Fremont's Diesner Field. At the same time, the Falcons face Lynbrook (3-2, 5-4) at Cupertino. Monta Vista finishes up on Nov. 8, 7 p.m., against Fremont (3-2, 6-3) at Cupertino.

Saratoga can wrap up the division title with a win, but if the Falcons fall and both the Mustangs and Matadors win, Monta Vista would claim the crown by virtue of its tiebreaker win over Homestead. The only way for the Mustangs to take the title is to win on Friday and hope for both Saratoga and Monta Vista to lose.

Homestead coach Charlie Bostic wants to see his Mustangs open up with more fire this Friday than they did last Friday.

"We came out real lackadaisical," said Bostic of his club's slow start against the Vikings. "We had to get hit in the mouth a couple of times to wake us up."

"We just didn't start out with the intensity we needed to win the game," said Rogers. "Then we just opened it up."

The Mustangs took control of the game on the strength of Rogers' impressive performance.

"Our offensive line really opened things up," added Rogers. "I just had to walk through."

He did more than walk. Rogers broke through a huge hole at the point of attack, then was off to the races on a 70-yard touchdown scamper in the second quarter. He also scored on runs of two, 27 and 40 yards and had a pair of 59-yard runs in the win.

"[Rogers] did a great job, and we did a great job up front," said Bostic of his offensive line of tackles Zack Snyder and Phillip Birton, guards Casey Anker and Ben Kimure and center Jeff Neale.

"They changed their defensive scheme after the opening series to try to stop us," he said. "They went to a goal line, and that opened up our trap."

Homestead trailed 16-13 at intermission, but scored 27 unanswered points in the second half to run away with the win.

"We can't squander opportunities and make mental mistakes like that," said Lynbrook coach Ray Wright after the game. "We just didn't finish our drives and we let them stay in the game."

"They gave us some different looks," he added. "They played with a little more intensity that we did."

Lynbrook looked pretty intense in the first quarter. Bryan Snyder ran for 18 yards on the first play of the game before Greg Wallis hit Scott Day for an eight-yard gain. Then Day took over.

Running behind an offensive front of tackles Nikhil Jain and Joe Fernandez, guards Bryant Chang and Mark Tabarez, center Ian Ing and tight end Andy Meunier, Day carried for two yards for the first down, ran for seven more, then broke one 44 yards for a touchdown.

Day carried 18 times for 167 yards to lead the Lynbrook offense and Wallis competed 13 of 36 passes for 159 yards, with Snyder catching four for 30 yards, Sami Kittani three for 55, Meunier three for 38, Emre Titizer one for 22, Day one for eight and Ryan Tom one for six.

Homestead tied it 6-6 on an 18-yard TD run by Alex Lumidao, but on the first play after the kickoff Day took off on a 72-yard touchdown run.

The clubs slugged it out for the rest of the first quarter before a 14-yard pass from Wallis to Meunier (the tight end reaching high with all of his 6-foot-8 frame to make the catch) and an 11-yard run by Tom set up Jim Baglanis for a 28-yard field goal that gave the Vikings a 16-6 lead 1:20 into the second quarter.

Homestead responded with a 70-yard touchdown run by Rogers and Aaron Godwin kicked the extra point to trim the lead to 16-13.

The Mustangs threatened again before the half when Rogers took off on a 59-yard run, but he was caught at the 10-yard line by Wallis and Snyder. It turned out to be a touchdown-saving play as the Mustangs fumbled two plays later and Meunier recovered for the Vikings.

The clubs remained locked in a tight game through the rest of the half and most of the third quarter before another 59-yard run by Rogers set up his own two-yard touchdown run.

Key defensive plays by John Batnitch, Evyatar Belson and Jose Aguilar forced the Vikings to punt, and Steven Humor returned the kick 35 yards to the Lynbrook 27. Rogers went 27 yards on the next play for the score.

Rogers would score once more on a 40-yard run, and Trevor Greyson ran one in from two yards out to complete the scoring for the Mustangs. Godwin kicked two more extra points to give him four on the day, and Homestead had the 40-16 win.

"We're back to the form where we were the first few games of the season," said Bostic.

Batnitch was the defensive leader for Homestead in the win with 10 tackles and Belson had seven. Anker, Birton and Nick Nguyen had five tackles each, and Birton, Nguyen and Neale each had quarterback sacks.

Greyson, Lumidao and Keven Condon finished with four tackles each and Courtney Dance had three. Darnel Green and Rex Blodgett each intercepted Lynbrook passes and Derek Shull, Patrick Chen, Kimure, Alan Flores, Aguilar, J.J. Kizine, Nick Lyden, Humor, Jean Lopez and Dance were also in on tackles.

Titizer had eight tackles, including a sack, to lead the Lynbrook defense. Day, Snyder and Fernandez had seven each, Tom added six and Wallis and Matt Field had four apiece. Ethan Brady and Jain had three tackles each and Meunier, Kittani, Austin Webb, Chang, A.J. Battar and Anthony Ferrario were also in on stops.