Saratoga opened the year with a win over Leigh, a team that figures to be a title contender in the top level of the Blossom Valley Athletic League—the Mt. Hamilton Division. A week later, the Falcons challenged Mountain View of the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, and they won that one too.

Last Friday, Saratoga traveled to Milpitas to take on another De Anza Division foe, and it was another barnburner. The Falcons and Trojans fought to a 20-20 on the brand new Milpitas turf.

Now the Falcons get down to business in the SCVAL's El Camino Division when they open league play against Fremont on Oct. 3, 7:30 p.m., at Los Gatos. But Saratoga head coach Kurt Heinrich is not taking the Firebirds lightly, even though they're an 0-3 team in the El Camino Division.

"They've got some athletes," said Heinrich of Fremont. "They look real tough."

Quarterback Mike Silva leads the Fremont offense, and the Saratoga coach knows that he's a good one.

"He's strong and he throws the ball real well," said Heinrich. "And they're got a pretty good running game."

The Falcons enter the game with their 2-0-1 record, the only mar the tie against Milpitas last Friday night. It was a game that initially appeared could be a runaway for the Trojans, but later appeared to be well in hand for the Falcons.

Milpitas took an early 13-0 lead with touchdowns in each of the first two quarters. The Trojans lined up for a second-period field goal, hoping to make it 16-0—but Adam Sato and Phil Spencer had other ideas.

Sato shot through to block the field goal attempt. The football bounced to Spencer, and he scooped it up at the 30-yard line and raced 70 yards for the touchdown.

"Adam got a hand up to block the kick and Spencer took it the distance down the sideline in front of the Milpitas bench," said Heinrich.

Eric Frederickson kicked the extra point, and instead of possibly trailing 16-0, the Falcons had cut the lead to 13-7 before the half.

"That was a big turnaround," said Heinrich.

Saratoga was an inspired football team in the third quarter and came out to score a couple of unanswered touchdowns to take a 21-13 lead.

Senior running back Dayne McGee got the Falcons going in the second half with a 41-yard touchdown. McGee was the offensive leader for Saratoga in the game, rushing for 97 yards for the Falcons. "He had another outstanding game," said Heinrich of McGee. "He scored the one touchdown and had another one called back."

Quarterback Brett Granum got in on the scoring act later in the period when he ran eight yards for a TD. Frederickson kicked his third extra points, and the Falcons were up 21-13.

"[Granum] did a nice job of running our offense," said Heinrich. "He carried two or three guys into the endzone on that touchdown run."

It remained 21-13 until the final minutes when the Falcons were stalled deep in their own territory and forced to punt the ball away. But Milpitas blocked the punt near the Saratoga 10-yard line and a few plays later ran it in for the touchdown. The Trojans passed for the 2-point conversion, and the scored was tied.

Saratoga came back fighting, though, and drove to the Milpitas 35. Hoping to get good enough field position for Frederickson field goal attempt, Granum dropped back to pass. But he was sacked for a big loss and fumbled the ball away.

Despite the tie, Heinrich was pleased with his club's showing.

"It was a good game," said the coach. "We made some mistakes, but we did some things well."

Heinrich was pleased with Sato's performance at linebacker. He blocked the field goal attempt, recovered a fumble and was among the Saratoga tackling leaders.

"He played a very good game," said Heinrich.

The coach also praised the efforts of Ryan Newberry, Brent Walter, Ryan Hall and T.J. Florence.

"They all played super on defense," said Heinrich.

He also had words of praise for defensive coordinator Kevin Tanner.

"Our defense did a great job," said Heinrich. "We're playing the best defense at this school as we have for a while, and Kevin's the architect of that."

Except for allowing the touchdown on the short field following the blocked punt, the Falcons virtually shut down the Milpitas offense in the second half.

"And that's not easy to do," said Heinrich. "They have a lot of good skill players."

McGee and Granum led the Falcons offensively, but the coach was also pleased with the performances of Newberry, who made a lot of "clutch catches down the middle," and Spencer, who "had a nice game, just being gutty."

Heinrich was also pleased with the improvement he's seeing in the offensive line.

"Each week they get better," he said, singling out Mark Bertelsen at center, Sato at right guard and sophomore Augie Lagemann at left tackle.

The coach wasn't too pleased about playing on the new turf at Milpitas.

"I'm still not a big fan [of turf]," he said. "To me, if you can't cut it, you shouldn't play on it. I still like grass."

Warriors fall

Despite holding a 7-2 halftime lead, the Westmont football team dropped a 10-7 heartbreaker to Mt. Pleasant last Friday night in a non-league game under the lights on the MP field.

The Warriors were stung by a safety in the second quarter, but came back to score on a 47-yard run by Daniel Weller.

Westmont held the 7-2 lead through intermission and into the fourth quarter, but Mt. Pleasant scored a touchdown and a 2-point conversion in the final period to pull out the tight victory.

The loss dropped Westmont to 0-3 for the year as the Warriors prepare to open the BVAL Santa Teresa Division season. Westmont will visit Branham on Oct. 3, 7 p.m. The Bruins are off to a 3-0 start in the young season.