At 8-1, Warriors prove their coach wrong

By Dick Sparrer

Tony Santos wasn't about to predict a league championship for his Westmont football team this fall.

How could he? After all, he was a first-year head coach taking over a team that had posted a dismal 4-6 record the year before.

So Santos was optimistic yet conservative when he predicted a 6-4 season for his club.

The Warriors, however, have proved him wrong ... and he couldn't be more pleased about it.

Westmont ran its record to 8-1 this fall and 4-1 in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League with a tight 16-15 win over Silver Creek last Saturday afternoon.

Santos was hoping to lead his squad to a winning season, and that is now certain with the Warriors posting eight wins in their first nine games. And with a win this week, they could accomplish so much more.

Westmont has already locked up no worse than a second-place tie in the division, but the Warriors could still get a piece of the title and a trip to the Central Coast Section playoffs if things work out well this weekend.

First of all, the Warriors must win when they host Del Mar Nov. 9, 7:15 p.m. If they do, they clinch second place and virtually lock up a trip to CCS.

But if the Warriors win and Andrew Hill can upset Gunderson on Friday night at PAL Stadium, Westmont could get a share of the league championship. Gunderson secured no worse than a title tie with a 39-15 win over Del Mar last weekend.

All of this was made possible last Saturday when the Warriors pulled out a tight 16-15 win over the Raiders at Silver Creek. Ben Peterson booted a 27-yard field goal in the final minute of play to help Westmont clinch the one-point victory.

Silver Creek drilled a first-quarter field goal to take the early lead in the game, but Westmont went up 7-3 before the end of the period on a 15-yard touchdown run by Mike Jiosa and a Peterson kick.

That's how things remained until the third quarter, when Silver Creek scored again to go up 9-7. The Raiders scored again early in the fourth to up their lead to 15-7, but their two missed extra points would end up proving costly.

Westmont cut the lead to 15-13 when junior quarterback Bryen Blankenship tossed a 29-yard TD pass to junior Brian DeWitt. The Warriors went for the 2-point conversion to tie it, but came up short.

That just set the stage, though, for Peterson's game-winning field goal in the final minute of play.

Panthers winless

The Prospect football team, meanwhile, remained winless last week, losing a 20-18 heartbreaker to Andrew Hill. The Panthers slipped to 0-5 in the Santa Teresa Division and to 0-9 for the year.

Prospect has one last chance to avoid a winless season. The Panthers will visit Overfelt Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m., in the final game of the season.

Falcons need a win

A win over Palo Alto would have probably done it.

But now if the Saratoga Falcons hope to have a shot at reaching the CCS playoffs, they likely need a victory this week against powerhouse Los Gatos.

The Falcons ended up stuck with a 24-24 tie against Paly last Friday afternoon, and Saratoga ended up losing the tiebreaker to the Vikings.

Saratoga now enters the final game of the regular season with a 2-2-1 record in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League and a 5-3-1 mark overall.

Palo Alto finishes the year against winless Gunn, so the team will likely will finish league play 2-3-1. A Saratoga loss to Gatos would leave the Falcons 2-3-1 and tied for fourth with the Vikes. The tiebreaker would then work against the Falcons.

But a win over the Wildcats Friday night would just about clinch a spot in the playoffs for the Falcons. And Saratoga is playing the Cats a week after their closest game of the year, a 28-21 win over Milpitas.

Saratoga will be the home team when the two clubs collide at Los Gatos Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m. Gatos enters the game 5-0 in the division and 9-0 for the year. The Falcons will take a 5-3-1 season record to Helm Field.

Saratoga actually had to fight from behind to pull out the tie against Palo Alto last Friday. The Falcons trailed 24-14 heading into the final quarter, but scored twice to knot the score at 24-24.

Paly scored first in the game, but Saratoga answered with a first-quarter touchdown on a 1-yard run by senior fullback Todd Ziegler. A.J. Weitsman kicked the extra point to tie things 7-7.

Unless the Falcons can knock off the Wildcats Friday night, that tiebreaker may prove very costly for Saratoga.

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