Photograph by Aaron Suozzi
Homestead's John Hanneman (16), scrambled for a loose ball in a win over Fremont earlier this season, tossed a touchdown pass, but the Mustangs lost 31-10 in the CCS Division II semifinals.
By DICK SPARRER
The season came to an end for the Homestead football team.
It didn't happen until the fourth quarter of the Central Coast Section Division II semifinals, but the Mustangs lost a 31-10 decision to Leland to see their season come to a disappointing finish just a game away from the CCS finals.
But while it may have been a disappointing finish for the Mustangs, it sure wasn't a disappointing season--far from it, in fact.
Homestead put together a super season in 1996 ... a season that started with a loss and finished with a loss, but featured 10 straight victories in between.
And six of those victories came in arguably the toughest league in the Central Coast Section--the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
Oh, there may have been league with tougher teams, but no league in the CCS was tougher from top to bottom than the De Anza Division.
It was a league that featured three unbeaten teams in the preseason--Monta Vista, Saratoga and Milpitas--and four teams that advanced to the CCS playoffs--Monta Vista, Saratoga, Homestead and Los Gatos.
And Homestead beat them all. The Mustangs beat Los Gatos for the first time in years after losing heartbreakers to the Wildcats in each of the past two seasons. They beat Saratoga 7-0 and shut out rival Monta Vista. They beat perrenial powerhouse Wilcox, and they also knocked off Palo Alto and Milpitas.
It all started with an opening day loss to Aragon,--another CCS playoff team. But the Mustangs won their next two games before opening the league season. They won their way through the division, then crushed El Camino Division champ Fremont in a nonleague game.
In all, Homestead played seven playoff teams out of 12 opponents in its remarkable 1996 campaign.
The De Anza champions opened the post-season with a 24-0 win over Menlo-Atherton, but lost to Leland a week later to fall out of the playoffs.
Leland will move on to face Woodside in the CCS Division II championship game on Dec. 7, 3 p.m., at San Jose State University's Spartan Stadium.
The Mustangs gave the Chargers all they could handle for three quarters before losing in the semifinals on Nov. 29 at San Jose's PAL Stadium.
Leland scored first in the game, moving in for a touchdown in the second quarter after the clubs had played to a scoreless tie in the first period.
But senior quarterback John Hanneman brought the Mustangs right back. Hanneman fired a 26-yard touchdown strike to junior wide receiver Jason Woods, and Daniel Castillo kicked extra point to tie the game 7-7 before intermission.
Leland went back on top in the third period, and led 14-7 heading into the fourth. But once more Homestead answered back, this time with a 29-yard field goal by Castillo, to stay close at 14-10.
But close is all the Mustangs could manage in that last quarter. The Chargers finished off Homestead with two touchdowns and a field goal to turn the tight 14-10 game into a 31-10 Leland victory.
Tony Elam rushed for 88 yards for the Mustangs, well below his season average of about 180 yards per game. But the effort couldn't dimish what an outstanding year was for the Homestead speedster.
The senior running back finished the 12-game season with nearly 2,200 yards rushing, which ranks him among the best backs to come out of Santa Clara Valley.
David Delgado, another talented senior running back for the Mustangs, was Elam's running mate all year and was another dangerous threat in the Homestead backfield.
Woods, who scored Homestead's only touchdown in the playoff battle with Leland, also broke up a near touchdown pass for Leland on the other end of the field. Woods starred in the secondary for the Mustangs in the game.
Defensive linemen David Atchison, Ali Beheshti and Mark Glennon were solid up front for the Mustangs, and Andrew Delgado and Matt Kenney also played well on the defensive side.
Glennon and Hwan Chon delivered key blocks for Hanneman on his second-quarter touchdown pass to Woods.
Seniors playing their final game for the outstanding Homestead club included Elam, A. Delgado, D. Delgado, Castillo, Hanneman, Atchison, Ben Amiwero, Tim Andrews, Chung Lai, Steven Goldberg, Trevor Salman, Zaheer Rizvi, D.J. Nieves, Matt Ikari, Oscar Zelada, Bo Gerth and Danny Byerly.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, December 4, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.