 |
|
|
|
|
Rain, tie dampen spirits of Firebirds, Pioneers
By Dick Sparrer
There were only two things that could have dampened the spirits of the Cupertino and Fremont football teams when they played for a share of the championship in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League last Saturday night ... a November rainfall and a tie.
Unfortunately for the Pioneers and Firebirds, they experienced both.
The first rain of the fall season soaked Diesner Field to create sloppy conditions and an equally sloppy game, and the two squads struggled to a 6-6 tie.
The former led directly to the latter, and it meant that neither team would share the division championship with Mountain View.
Going into the game, the Spartans had only one hope--a Cupertino-Fremont tie. A loss to Homestead a week earlier left Mountain View facing the inevitable... a tie for first place. After leading the pack for most of the season, the Spartans were stung with loss to the Mustangs, pushing them into a three-way tie for first place with Cupertino and Fremont.
Mountain View needed a win on Friday and got it with a 33-13 victory over Monta Vista. Then the Spartans would just have to sit back to see which team they shared the title with, the Pioneers or Firebirds. The winner of that Saturday night game would finish in a tie for the championship ... unless, of course, there was no winner.
And that's how it turned out. Cupertino scored on the last play of the third quarter to take a 6-0 lead, then Fremont tied it with a TD in the fourth. The game ended in a 6-6 draw, and the championship went to Mountain View.
Cupertino ended up winning the tiebreaker, but that was only to break the second-place tie between the two clubs on the field that night.
Mountain View clinched the title and a berth in the Central Coast Section playoffs with a 5-1 El Camino record. The Spartans take an 8-2 season record into the playoffs that begin this weekend.
Cupertino and Fremont ended up sharing second in the division with matching 4-1-1 records, though the Pioneers are officially the second-place club by virtue of their tiebreaker win over the Firebirds on Saturday. Homestead ended up a close third at 4-2.
No title tie
The Pioneers and Firebirds were denied a share of the division crown when they sloshed to a 6-6 draw on the muddy Diesner turf on Saturday.
For quite a while it appeared as though the squads would struggle to a scoreless tie. They battled for field position much of the night with neither teams gaining much of an advantage. The Pioneers were having trouble moving the football, and the Firebirds were having problems holding onto the ball.
Fremont fumbled seven times in the game, losing four of them, and Cupertino eventually took advantage of one of the Firebird bobbles.
A fumbled snap squirted free in the Fremont backfield, and Andrew Reese pounced on it for the Pioneers at their own 49.
A 9-yard run by Matt Leavenworth set up a 38-yard touchdown run by David Poole.
It started off as just a simple off tackle play, and Poole appeared to be stopped after just a short gain. But big No. 5 broke free from the pack of Fremont tacklers and raced up the right sideline for the score.
The snap got away on the extra point attempt, but Cupertino had taken a 6-0 lead on the last play of the third quarter. And the way the night was going, it seemed that might be enough for a Cupertino victory.
But Fremont had other ideas.
After failing to move the ball after the kick off and having to punt the ball away, the Fremont defense stepped up to stop the Pioneers cold.
Big 265-pound Mike Ball made a couple of tackles before Donyell Johnson and Mike Mattman combined for a big quarterback sack.
Ben Reynolds drilled a clutch 52-yard punt, thanks to a favorable bounce, but Jessie Enchill ran it back 10 yards to the Fremont 27.
Runs by Johnson and Demarr Mills helped the Firebirds to a first down before another fumbled snap nearly ended the march. But an alert Nick Arnold dropped on the ball, and the recovery by the 300-pound offensive tackle kept Fremont's hopes alive.
Quarterback Delainy Durgin took advantage of the new life by hitting Enchill with a quick pass to the left, and the Fremont speedster broke it 43 yards down the sideline before getting knocked out of bounds at the Cupertino 20.
A 16-yard run by Johnson got the Firebirds close, and Durgin snuck in behind center Kevin Wilder for the game-tying score. The extra point kick was low and blocked by the Pioneers.
Cupertino couldn't move after the kick off and had to punt back to Fremont with 1:06 left in the game. All the Firebirds could muster, though, was a field goal try. And another low kick was blocked by 'Tino.
Johnson and Mattman teamed for another sack, and a final Cupertino pass attempt fell incomplete, leaving the clubs in a tie.
Pioneers win tiebreaker
In order to break the second-place tie, the clubs went to the league tiebreaker--each team running four plays from the 10-yard-line.
Cupertino went first, and Fremont's Luke Tran stopped Poole for just a yard gain on the first play. Quarterback Robert McCoy scrambled for four yards before getting hauled down by Enchill and Arnold, then McCoy's third-down pass into the end zone was broken up by Enchill.
Gabe Zeballos came on to drill a 22-yard field goal to give the Pioneers a 3-0 edge with Fremont taking over on offense.
But the Firebirds were going nowhere. Poole dropped Johnson after just a 1-yard gain on Fremont's first play, then Reynolds sacked Durgin for a 7-yard loss. A third down pass fell incomplete before Poole sacked Durgin on the final play to clinch a tiebreaker win for the Pioneers.
Johnson, Durgin star
Johnson and Durgin put up the biggest numbers offensively in the game, and Johnson was also outstanding on the defensive side of the football for Fremont.
Johnson led all ground gainers as he sloshed for 68 yards on 16 carries. He also had five quarterback sacks among his seven tackles, sharing two with Mattman but adding three solo sacks.
Durgin finished the night with impressive passing numbers, despite the sloppy conditions. The senior quarterback hit on 7 of 9 passes for 196 yards. Enchill was his favorite target, catching four passes for 84 yards. Javier Eredia had a catch for 17 yards and Gilbert Aragon had two catches for five yards.
Eredia led all Fremont tacklers with eight stops and Johnson was close behind with seven. Esteban Carbajal was in on five tackles and Mattman had four, including the two sacks. Mario Gonzalez also sacked the Cupertino quarterback.
Enchill, Arnold and Ball finished with three tackles each and Tran, Kenneth Mills and Chris Maston were also in on tackles.
|
|
|
|
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
