Saratoga News

Sports

Tough loss for Falcons in CCS semifinals

By Dick Sparrer

The fans in the Saratoga bleachers rose to their feet, applauding their Falcons for a job well done.

Still, on the field below there was only disappointment. Saratoga had lost a 17-14 heartbreaker to Live Oak in the semifinals of the Central Coast Section Medium School Division playoffs on the day after Thanksgiving at the San Jose City College field.

Emotional players, many of them weeping openly in the aftermath of the defeat, could only consider what might have been.

"Hey, don't hang your heads at all," hollered head coach Kurt Heinrich to his Falcons moments after the conclusion of the game.

He was right. While the Falcons had good cause to be disappointed, they had nothing to be ashamed of. After all, this is a team that won the championship in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League and posted a solid 8-4 record in the 2007 season.

"It was a great year," said Heinrich. "This doesn't diminish the season they had."

With the win, Live Oak advances to the CCS championship game this weekend. It was a date the Falcons were hoping to keep.

"They run that crafty fly-sweep offense, and it caused us some problems," said Heinrich of the Acorns.

Live Oak scored a touchdown with 41.6 seconds left in the first half and converted the two-point conversion to lead 8-7 at intermission. The Acorns scored again in the second half, then won it with a 21-yard field goal to break a 14-14 tie with 12.8 seconds left in the game.

"It seemed like we were sitting and catching in the first half, then we started moving and had a better effort in the second half," said the coach. "But our defense did fine--we held them to 17 points. We should have scored more, and we didn't."

It sure looked like they would. The Falcons moved right down the field to score on their second possession of the day.

Jasper Loren, who had a huge day with 16 tackles, forced a fumble that Matt Keating recovered, and the Falcons had the football at the Live Oak 15. Senior quarterback Kyle Guengerich led Saratoga on a methodical 16-play, 85-yard drive that featured three passes to Andrew Capek, including an 18-yard touchdown pass.

Gabe Essner had three carries for 19 yards and Keon Ghafouri ran six times for 18 yards behind the offensive front of tackles Zack Kowitz and Scott Thoren, guards Bryan Dodge and Alan Yen and center David Pignatelli. But the key plays on the march were Guengerich passes of 16 and 10 yards to Capek and a crucial one-yard sneak by Guengerich on a fourth down quarterback sneak.

Guengerich, who hit on 9 of 14 passes for 145 yards, capped the drive when he lofted a pass into the right corner of the end zone and Capek made the catch for the touchdown with 1:12 left in the first period. Kris Clark converted, and the Falcons were up 7-0.

The clubs traded punts before the Acorns put together a 12-play 74-yard TD drive that ate up nearly 6 minutes and included three third-down conversions. In all, Live Oak converted on 13 third downs in the game, two of them for touchdowns.

Live Oak scored first in the second half to go up 14-7, but the Falcons answered right back. Ghafouri fielded the kickoff at the 21 and handed off to Mathew Spencer, who ran the ball to midfield. A 22-yard pass from Guengerich to Spencer and an 11-yard run by Spencer set up a 16-yard touchdown run by Ghafouri. Clark's second kick tied the game 14-14 with 11:09 left to play.

Clark put the kickoff into the end zone, and on Live Oak's first play from scrimmage Capek recovered a fumbled snap at the LO 29-yard line.

Saratoga couldn't convert a first down, though, and the Acorns took over at their own 21 with 9:08 to play. They used just about all of that time to move to the Saratoga 3-yard line, converting on four third downs and taking advantage of two Saratoga pass interference penalties. Jeff Blean came on to kick a 21-yard field goal, and the Acorns led 17-14 with 12.8 seconds to play.

After a sack, Guengerich completed a 27-yard pass to Cullen Bowen, but the clock ran out with the Falcons at midfield.

Guengerich led the Saratoga offense with his 145 yards through the air, hitting Capek four times for 48 yards, Bowen twice for 39, Ghafouri twice for 16 and Spencer once for 22.

Essner led the ground attack with 48 yards on 12 carries. Ghafouri carried 10 times for 35 yards and Spencer ran three times for 30. Spencer had a 50-yard run on a key fourth-down play called back on a holding call in the first half.

Loren led the defense with his 16 tackles and Darrek Emerson was in on 11 stops for the Falcons, one of them for a loss.

Steven Walker had seven tackles and Jonathan Yen was in on six. Both had two tackles for losses. Scott McKenzie finished with five tackles and Kowitz, Ghafouri and Capek had four each. McKenzie and Kowitz each had tackles losses--Kowitz's coming inside the Saratoga 5-yard line on Live Oak's final drive for the field goal.

Essner and Bowen had three tackles each and Timothy Yen, Keating, Casey Farmer and Spencer were also in on tackles.

The game marked the end of the high school careers for seniors Alex Bierach, Mike Bitner, Bowen, Capek, Clark, Dylan D'Ercole, Dodge, Essner, Peter Florence, Ghafouri, Guengerich, Brendan Heller, Nikhil Kaul, Keating, Kowitz, Benjamin Mariani, McKenzie, Pignatelli, Saumann Vahabi, Walker and J. Yen.