He said it again last weekend after the Falcons held off Homestead for a 21-16 victory in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. And once again, he really meant it.

Because Heinrich knows how tough wins are to come by in the rugged De Anza Division, and he cherishes each one.

"This is a great group of competitors," said Heinrich of his club. "They do themselves proud."

And the Falcons have competed well enough to put themselves in an interesting position heading into the final two weeks of the regular season—they're in position to make a run for second place and a spot in the Central Coast Section playoffs.

With the win over the Mustangs on Friday night, the Falcons pushed their season record to 5-3 and their league mark to 3-2. Los Gatos (7-1, 4-0) is running away with the championship, but Saratoga, Palo Alto (5-3, 3-2), Wilcox (5-2-1, 2-2) and Milpitas (4-4, 2-2) are in a virtual tie for second place with two weeks left to play. A 29-28 Milpitas win over Paly last Friday threw the four clubs into the second-place logjam.

The scenario makes things interesting in the final two weeks of the regular season. Saratoga hosts Los Altos in a non-league game on Nov. 5, 7:30 p.m., at Los Gatos before finishing the league season at Wilcox on Nov. 12, 7:30 p.m. A win over the Chargers on the final night of the De Anza campaign would clinch a playoff spot for the Falcons.

Right now, though, Heinrich is more concerned with his club's Friday night foe, Los Altos.

"They run the ball well—they run the wing T," said Heinrich of the Eagles, who are 5-3 this year and 3-2 in the El Camino Division. "They've got plenty of talent."

But so do the Falcons, and they proved that last Friday against Homestead. Saratoga took an early 21-10 lead against the Mustangs, then held off a late comeback to clinch the win.

Homestead scored midway through the fourth quarter on a 1-yard run by powerful fullback Chris Morris to cut the gap to 21-16, then the Mustangs got the ball back a few minutes later on a pass interception.

Homestead took over at the Saratoga 43-yard line and started to move. The Mustangs drove inside the Saratoga red zone to the 18 with 54 seconds left in the game. But a third-down pass into the end zone was picked off by Kyle Stoffers in the final seconds, and the Falcons ran out the clock for the win.

"Kyle made a sure-handed pick to seal the win," said Heinrich.

Two touchdowns by Phil Spencer and one by Brandon Kinsting, together with three extra-point kicks by David Orasin, helped the Falcons build a 21-10 lead to take into the fourth quarter.

Spencer, who scored on runs of 64 and 25 yards, led the Saratoga offensive attack with 113 yards on 10 carries. Peter Rutti also had a big night with 101 yards on 13 tries. Kinsting's touchdown came on an 18-yard run.

"They were really aggressive—they were fighting for their playoff lives," said Heinrich of Homestead. "They took away our outside and played good defense."

But Spencer was able to cause Homestead fits running trap plays inside.

"Phil did a nice job," said Heinrich. "He was really gutty inside."

The coach also praised Rutti and Scott Newberry for their efforts running the football and singled out Kinsting for running the offense.

But it was the defense that came up with a couple of plays that turned out to be game-savers—the interception by Stouffers and a touchdown-saving tackle by Jeff Lyu on Morris just before the half.

The coach praised the defensive efforts of Ryan Hall, Brent Walter, Greg Mow, T.J. Florence, Adam Sato, Mark Denari, Michael Block and Spencer.

"And [Orasin] did a real good job punting the ball," added the coach. "He managed field position for us."

Panthers are winners

What started out as a pretty dismal season has taken an interesting turn for the Prospect High School football team.

The Panthers, who won just a single game a year ago, opened up with more of the same this fall, losing two of their first four games, including a 26-7 loss to Evergreen Valley in their Blossom Valley Athletic League West Valley Division opener. But since that time, Prospect has been on a tear.

It started with a close 14-6 win over Overfelt. And now the Panthers have won four straight for first-year head coach Carlos Boles to push their record to 6-2 for the year and to 4-1 in the division.

Boles, the longtime Prospect baseball coach who took over the football program this fall, has watched his club cruise through the West Valley Division. After splitting their first two games, the Panthers have beaten Yerba Buena 27-6, San Jose Academy 33-0 and Del Mar 27-13.

The streak has not only clinched a winning season for the Panthers after a string of losing campaigns, it also has them talking about the outside chances of a division championship on the Prospect campus this fall.

Their hopes are somewhat slim, but the Panthers still have a mathematical shot at the crown and a shot at the Central Coast Section playoffs—with a win and a little help from others.

Prospect wraps up league play at home against James Lick (5-3, 4-1) on Nov. 6, 1:30 p.m. The Panthers need to beat the Comets, and hope that both Del Mar (3-4-1, 2-2) and Lick can knock off Evergreen (5-3, 4-0) in the final two weeks of the season. Prospect finishes the regular season in a non-league game at Santa Teresa on Nov. 13, 1:30 p.m. In that scenario, the Panthers wind up 5-1 in league play and both Lick and Evergreen finish West Valley action at 4-2. Prospect could claim a share of the division title with a win over Lick and just one loss by Evergreen, but in that case it would be the Cougars moving on to the CCS playoffs.

Del Mar scored two touchdowns against a tough Prospect defense that had allowed only two TDs in three games since losing its league opener to Evergreen Valley.

Leading that defense has been senior linebacker Garrett Karren, averaging nearly 10 tackles a game including 11 quarterback sacks through the first seven games of the year.

Scott Skinner and J.P. Nation join Karren as top tacklers and sackers for the Panthers. Nick Nichols, Danny Okazaki, Tim Maag, Kenny Strickland and Travis Chun have also figured among the defensive leaders for Prospect.

Senior quarterback Troy Varanchodom leads the offense for Prospect, throwing to favorite targets Strickland and Karren. Skinner heads up the rushing attack, with help from Melvin Hutchinson, and its been Strickland, Skinner and Karren doing most of the scoring for the Panthers.