The Willow Glen Resident

Tough loss for Willow Glen

David Macchi's five touchdown tosses were not enough to pull off a win

By Dick Sparrer

When discussing his club's weekend loss to Saratoga, Willow Glen football coach Bob Parker gets a little defensive.

And he wishes his Rams could have been a little more of the same last Saturday night.

"We're struggling defensively," said Parker after the Rams dropped a 42-34 decision to the Falcons on the Los Gatos field.

Willow Glen scored five touchdowns in the nonleague game, but the Rams gave up six. What's more, the Willow Glen defense gave up 579 yards--521 of that coming on the ground.

"It was pretty ugly," said Parker, who watched four Saratoga players run through his defense to run up over 100 yards rushing apiece.

"We had a lot of good defense plays, and some of our guys are going to get a little better," Parker said. "But obviously we have some work to do."

"We got off to a horrible start," the coach said of the Saratoga game. "We're just not quite in sync yet."

It was a tough loss for the Rams, who had opened the year with impressive offensive displays in back-to-back wins over Lincoln and Monta Vista. And for the Willow Glen offense, it was more of the same against Saratoga.

David Macchi completed 21 of 35 passes for 296 yards and five touchdowns to help keep the Rams in the football game right down to the final minute.

"We gave up 500 yards," Parker said, "but we had 300 yards, so they didn't stop us, either."

The Rams trailed 42-20 late in the game but rallied back to within eight points.

Macchi hit John Fernandez for 50 yards and a touchdown, then went back to Fernandez for 30 yards and a score. Macchi found Nich Holt with a pass for the two-point conversion, and it was 42-34 with a minute left to play.

But the Rams failed to recover an onside kick after the final touchdown, and the Falcons ran out the clock for the win.

The clubs battled back and forth in the first half. The Falcons ran for a touchdown before Macchi tied it with a 24-yard TD toss to Fernandez. Holt kicked the extra point to make it 7-7.

Saratoga scored again to take a 14-7 lead at the half.

The Falcons ran for two TDs in the third period to lead 28-7, but Macchi went 37 yards to Fernandez for a score. Holt converted again to cut the lead to 28-14.

Saratoga scored once more, but Willow Glen answered right back with a four-yard touchdown pass from Macchi to Will Rideau, who was hammered in the end zone but held onto the football.

The Falcons ran for their sixth touchdown to lead 42-20, but that set the stage for Macchi's last two touchdown passes to Fernandez.

Willow Glen finished the night with 296 yards through the air and the five touchdown passes.

"They're pretty proficient through the air," Saratoga coach Kurt Heinrich said of the Rams.

Fernandez finished the night with five catches for 165 yards, four of the catches going for touchdowns. Cory Hare led the receiving corps with seven catches, and Holt caught three balls. Ruben Figueroa, Dave Estrella and Mike Strangis also had receptions for the Rams.

"The good news is that we know we can score points," Parker said after the loss. But he also knows that the Rams have a lot of work to do defensively.

"But we're on the job," he said. "Each week we're learning more about our kids, and we keep fine-tuning it."

The coach was pleased with the work of Seth Andrews at linebacker and plans to play Hare at a linebacker spot. The Rams also moved Kyran Warren into the defensive line, and he forced a fumble that set up a touchdown.

"And we're starting to hit a little better," the coach added.

That comes at a good time, considering that the Rams will open play in the Santa Teresa Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League this week.

Willow Glen runs head first into a couple of Santa Teresa Division title favorites in the first two weeks, Santa Teresa and Valley Christian.

The Rams will host the Saints on Oct. 2, 3:30 p.m., in the league opener. The Saints are 2-1 and have shut out their last two opponents. Santa Teresa blanked Lick 35-0, then whitewashed Mt. Pleasant 28-0 last week. The Saints were shut out 27-0 by Overfelt in their season opener.

"Our league was 6-1 this week, and we were the only loss," Parker said. "But we knew we had a tough preseason. We played three good running teams."

While the Saints were beating MP and the Rams were falling to Saratoga, Pioneer (2-1) beat Lick 19-13, Piedmont Hills topped Independence 7-0, Valley Christian clubbed Santa Clara 21-7 and Prospect edged Del Mar 13-12.

Mustangs beat Lick

One of the six Santa Teresa Division winners last week was Pioneer. The Mustangs held on to edge Lick 19-13 after opening up a 19-0 lead in the Saturday afternoon game.

The Mustangs scored two first-half touchdowns and scored again in the third to take the 19-0 lead, but they had to hold on when Lick rallied back with two TDs in the fourth.

Pioneer scored on just its second possession of the day. Ted Lopez forced a Lick fumble and recovered it himself to give the Mustangs the football at their own 28.

Bryan Collins carried three times for 22 yards, Mike Wiens ran once for five yards, and quarterback Greg Haskell scrambled twice for 15 yards before Collins broke a 27-yard run down to the 13.

Three plays later, Haskell ran a keeper around the right side for eight yards and a touchdown, and Nick Harrison kicked the extra point.

A Collins interception set up Pioneer's next score less than two minutes later. Collins picked off a pass at the 17, then Sean Sarsfield tossed a halfback pass 17 yards to Kevin Gray for a touchdown.

It was 13-0 at the half, then Pioneer put together a nine-play, 64-yard drive to open the second half. Haskell blasted over from the two to cap the drive, and the Mustangs were in command.

But Lick battled back, and Pioneer had to eat up the last five minutes of the game to secure the win.

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