Saratoga News

Sports

Falcon frosh-soph rebound from loss with 14-0 win over Eagles

By Dick Sparrer

There's only one good way to get over a disappointing loss ... with a win.

And that's just what the Saratoga frosh-soph football team last Saturday at Los Altos. The young Falcons rebounded from a tough 14-7 loss to Fremont with a 14-0 win over the Eagles.

Gibran Meza ran four yards for a touchdown and Casey Farmer scored on a 12-yard run to lead the Falcons to the win that evened their record at 1-1 in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. Farmer kicked both extra points.

Saratoga ran up 279 yards of total offense while holding the Eagles to just 123.

"We jumped out early, posting a 14-point first quarter, and then held on," said Saratoga coach Shelley Smith. "For the second week in a row our defense played great and made the big plays when it counted."

Jasper Loren and Raymond Boales were standouts in the defensive line for the Falcons. Smith also praised the work of cornerback Michael Beam, free safety Timmy Yen and defensive ends Jens Karren and Brandon Shamirza.

Los Altos showed us some new formations and our defensive coordinator, Jeff Dere, did an outstanding job making game time adjustments," said Smith. "The defense capped off the day with a solid goal line stand to end the third quarter, keeping our lead intact."

Meanwhile, the Saratoga offense was grinding out the yardage on the ground. Phil Chen led the attack with 101 yards on 10 carries. Farmer finished with 93 yards on 13 tries and Yen had 56 yards on 11 attempts.

Quarterback Michael Guercio completed 1 of 4 passes for 13 yards, hooking up with Alex Wokas for a completion.

The offensive line of Scott Thoren, Matt Hawks, Jasper Loren, Alan Yen and Boales led the charge up front.

"They came ready to play and paved the way for our scoring drives," said Smith.

"Our team really took the loss last week to Fremont hard and felt we gave that game away with our turnovers," added the coach. "This week we had focused practice sessions and knew we had to play to our potential in order to have success against a Los Altos team playing their homecoming game. I was very proud of how our young men responded, stepping up and taking on the challenge."

This week will mark Saratoga's homecoming, and the Falcons will play host to Monta Vista in a 5:15 p.m. game on Oct. 13, under their brand new home lights.