Photograph by Aaron Suozzi
Homestead's Oscar Zelada (32) fights to get away from Fremont's Ray Loya (12). The Homestead backs were able to get away from the Firebirds enough to roll to a 31-6 in the nonleague game that matched the champions of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League's De Anza and El Camino divisions.
By DICK SPARRER
Homestead was already the champion of the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
Nothing that would happen in the final two weeks of the 1996 football season could change that.
But the Mustangs wanted to prove more--and they still do.
The Mustangs wanted to prove that they are the best team in all of the SCVAL. And they want to prove that they can play with the best of them at the Central Coast Section level.
Homestead proved its first point last Friday with a convincing 31-6 victory over El Camino Division champion Fremont. They'll have to wait a couple of weeks to get their shot at CCS.
But they'll get it, thanks to their title in the De Anza Division. And if last Friday night's performance is any indication of how the Mustangs will stack up against champions from other leagues, their chances don't look bad at all.
Tony Elam continued to run up the yardage and the touchdowns, as he raced for more than 200 yards and three TDs to lead the Mustangs to the win over the Firebirds.
Elam broke a scoreless tie early in the second quarter when he took off on a 53-yard touchdown run. It wasn't much later when he was off to the races for a 33-yard scoring romp.
Daniel Castillo converted after each of the Elam scores, then added three more points late in the half with a 34-yard field goal to give the Mustangs a 17-0 lead at intermission.
Homestead went right back to work after the halftime break. Senior quarterback John Hanneman went up on top to hit Ben Amiwero for 39 yards and a touchdown to up the Mustangs' lead to 24-0.
Then Elam stepped in again. The senior speedster took off on a 20-yard touchdown run, and Castillo kicked his fourth extra point to give Homestead a 31-0 lead.
That's how it remained until the fourth when Fremont quarterback Lamar Harvey tossed 17 yards to Darren Lang for a touchdown, but that's all the Firebirds could manage.
The win leaves Homestead 5-0 in league play and 8-1 for the year heading into the final game of the division season. The Mustangs will take on winless Milpitas on Nov. 15.
Fremont, now 6-3 for the year, will wrap up the El Camino Division season on Nov. 15 at home against winless Lynbrook.
The loss, while disappointing for the Firebirds, did little to injure their season. The 'Birds will go to the CCS playoffs by virtue of their division title. Not even a loss to Lynbrook could take that away from Fremont, though a win would give the Firebirds a perfect league record.
Lynbrook is coming off a 21-13 loss to previously winless Los Altos.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, November 13, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.