Down 14-0 with just 24 seconds left in the first half against
North Salinas Friday, the Gilroy Mustangs had nothing going their
way.
GILROY
Down 14-0 with just 24 seconds left in the first half against North Salinas Friday, the Gilroy Mustangs had nothing going their way. The team’s first six offensive series ended as such: Interception, punt, interception, turnover on downs, turnover on downs, turnover on downs and interception.
But when an opponent gives Gilroy the ball and a bit of clock, points aren’t so much possible as they are inevitable.
A 50-yard post pattern and catch by Travis Reyes followed by a 20-yard wheel route and catch by Sean Hale resulted in 70 yards and seven points (see Kevin Grove for the PAT) in all of 17 seconds.
The second half was a 28-0 blowout in which the Mustangs’ defense and special teams carried the momentum of the first half over to the final two periods. Two blocked punts and two interceptions were obvious points of pride, but holding the TCAL’s leading rusher DevIn Camel to 24 yards rushing on 17 carries was an even greater feat. Camel had 1,052 yards in the previous eight games.
The offense followed suit by eliminating many of its earlier mistakes and converting turnovers into points. Had the receivers not covered their hands in cement and/or melted butter for the first two periods, Gilroy could have hung almost 60 on the scoreboard.
But this is all part of the fun of watching this year’s team.
The Mustangs have so much talent and keep up such a relentless pace with their platoon system, they will almost never be out of a game.
When Gilroy lost 27-21 to Oak Grove earlier in the year, it earned moral victory status. When the team lost 52-31 at Serra, the second half seemed to be a way of padding the stats. I’ve changed my opinion a little on both of these games.
Gilroy lost to OG, but I can’t say with certainty who would win more if the two teams met ten times. That means it may have been a moral victory at that moment, but now it just feels like a game that got away. Serra was a definite defeat, but the second half showed that if an opponent doesn’t sustain its intensity for a full 48 minutes, Gilroy will come back.
Those losses helped make Gilroy what it is today – a league champion for the first time in 21 years. But here’s what GHS Coach Rich Hammond told me before last week’s game: “If we win out and we’re 8-2 and (have) a TCAL title, we can beat any team in the section.”
After the last two weeks, you’d be crazy to think he’s wrong.
Notes:
– Coach Hammond said he didn’t think North Salinas had played more than fifty downs of defense in a game this season. Friday the Vikings saw 36 plays in the first half and 33 in the second. NFL offenses don’t always run 70 plays and they have 12 more minutes of game time.
-“Outside of Oak Grove and Serra, [North Salinas] will be the best running team we play,” Hammond said the day before the game. After giving up 120 yards on the ground, about 300 yards less per game than GHS gave up to OG and Serra, it seems the defense has officially found its groove.
– You may have noticed a formation last week in which four GHS receivers line up in a diamond, but are facing each other as if in a huddle. I’ve never seen anything like it but Hammond said the coaches decided to try it since cornerbacks are often trying to dictate a direction by jamming receivers. Defenses now have to ask themselves, ‘How do I jam a receiver that isn’t facing forward?’
– No one has complained to the coaching staff about not getting the ball enough this season. The result is six GHS players with over 200 receiving yards. Only six players on other teams have over 200 yards receiving.
n Injuries can be a killer for a lot of teams. When cornerback/return man Ryan Costa went down for the year at Pacific Grove, the team could have started to unravel. Instead, the Mustangs have dedicated the season to their fallen teammate and are playing inspired football. Safety Tony Travis made a point of mentioning that the team is still playing for Costa after the win over North Salinas.
– A win over San Benito this coming Friday would not only give Gilroy its first outright TCAL title since 1981, it would also give the Mustangs a home game in the CCS’s Open School Division. And maybe, just maybe, if GHS were able to see OG and Serra again in the playoffs and win on their way to a CCS title, the Mustangs would be viable candidates for a state bowl berth.
Yes, I needed binoculars to see that far down the road.
