GILROY — It may have been a bye week for Christopher, but the team was doing anything but resting.
The Cougars are itching to get back on the field after a long week without football. The team is looking to rebound from its 48-21 loss to Carmel on Sept. 20 at home.
“We’re going to get after it,” Cougars coach Tim Pierleoni said. “We’re going to get after it as coaches and we’re going to get after it as football players. They really are biting at the bit right now. We’ve sat a bit too long and there’s a bunch of football players here that want to play.”
Turnovers plagued the Cougars against Carmel, as they generated six of them in the matchup including four in the second half. Ball security and better decision making has been the focus of their practices leading up to this week’s game. The Cougars D has been testing it’s offense all week, trying to strip the ball in order to prepare it for the pressure San Mateo will bring this week.
“Turnovers are really tough,” Pierleoni said. “Throughout the first two games they hadn’t really been a problem for us, we’ve been doing a pretty good job of taking care of the ball. We just think that a very good football team in Carmel and maybe us not doing as good as we should’ve done factored into some of those things.”
Junior linebacker Jacob Moen continued his stellar play on defense, coming up with 11 tackles, a forced fumble and a blocked punt in the game. He’s currently part of a three-way tie for first in tackles in the Monterey Bay League, sharing the honor with Gilroy’s Julian Carabajal and San Benito’s Cody McGrew.
San Mateo is coming off a 19-10 win over Carlmont last week. They will certainly be looking to utilize junior running back Line Latu, who is averaging 118.3 yards per game. Latu has 473 yards on 72 carries and three touchdowns through four games for San Mateo. The Bearcats run the option, so Pierleoni said it’s imperative that his defense stick to its assignments to prevent explosive plays.
“My big thing that I tell them is I never want to hear ‘I think I saw’, I want to hear ‘I saw’,” the Cougars coach said. “If you don’t tackle the kid because you don’t think he has the ball, that’s when you see option teams sprint for 80 (yards). They’ve got a really good running back that can do that.”
Christopher will square off against San Mateo at 2 p.m. Saturday at home for the inaugural meeting between the two teams. While playing on Saturday afternoon may be a bit out of the ordinary for high school players, Pierleoni said his players are getting a taste of what to expect at the next level.
“Any day game I have as a high school coach, reminds me of when I was a college coach and college football player. I push that onto my kids,” he said. “We’re going to wake up in the morning, we’re going to eat breakfast, we’re going to go and get taped and we’re going to play. You don’t have to sit around, you don’t have to wait.
“I tell them that everything is brighter, everything is lighter. It’s warmer, your muscles feel better. College football is exciting and a lot of kids want to see that and feel that. So I try to get them ready for that anticipation of a Saturday afternoon game.”
This is the last nonleague game for Christopher, but it isn’t placing any more emphasis on this game than it would its others. That being said, Pierleoni said that his team is more than ready to get back on the field.
“Every game that play, we talk about preparing as hard as we can and playing as hard as we can, making plays. It doesn’t matter who we play, which week it is,” Pierleoni said. I try to train my guys that after every game the next game is the big game. We’re going to play this game, we’re going to move on and we’re going to prepare for our next game.”
They really are biting at the bit right now. We’ve sat a bit too long and there’s a bunch of football players here that want to play.”
