Anyone who says they haven’t had a single regret in their life
is a liar. Collectively, the Mustangs were telling nothing but
truths about their 27-21 loss last week to the Oak Grove
Eagles.
Gilroy – Anyone who says they haven’t had a single regret in their life is a liar.
Collectively, the Mustangs were telling nothing but truths about their 27-21 loss last week to the Oak Grove Eagles.
They admitted to committing too many stupid penalties, on defense as well as offense. They admitted to dropping passes that should have been caught, similarly stalling drives. And worst of all, they admitted that there was confusion as to what they were supposed to be doing at the end of the game.
“When I watched the game on Saturday,” running back Travis Reyes said, “it made it worse because we killed ourselves.”
Now let’s get to the positives.
The Mustangs played as hard as they could, and came within a touchdown and extra point of beating one of the best teams in the Central Coast Section, which showcased the best running back in the area.
Oak Grove’s Nevin Gardiner ran for more than 200 yards and three scores – on a bum ankle no less – but still the Eagles weren’t able to distance themselves.
“It was even better that Nevin played; for us to lose only by six to their best” Reyes said.
Even more compelling, was the way the boys in blue battled despite the referees practically gift-wrapping first downs in the form of facemask penalties.
After having a chance to watch the film, GHS coach Rich Hammond was asked if he saw some of these phantom calls.
“No, but you don’t get the breaks when you play a champion and you gotta play a score or two better,” he said, “And I don’t know because I wasn’t on the field. I didn’t see them on film, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t there … But when you play the (champions) of the world, you can’t beat them by a point. You gotta beat them by a score or two.”
One aspect of the game that won’t show up in any of the box scores was the Eagles’ preparation time. Oak Grove had two weeks to get ready for Gilroy after losing its season opener to Saint Francis. Having experience playing against similar styles of offense, and game tape of the Mustangs mopping the floor with Mountain View, didn’t hurt according to Eagles coach Ed Bullard.
“Well, you know, (Gilroy) did a nice job,” he said. “Fortunately, we’ve seen that offense with a couple teams in our league, so we had an idea. But they ran it well … We were fortunate we had two weeks to get ready for it.”
Bullard’s team, while far better on paper, didn’t play like it on Friday night. Instead, Gilroy was the team worth talking about.
“It’s exciting because of course we want to get to the playoffs,” junior quarterback Jamie Jensen said. “Hopefully, we’ll have another chance at them.”
That certainly would be exciting. That would give the Mustangs a chance to live without regrets.
