Gilroy High running back Brandon Boyd already has 408 rushing yards. At Christopher, freshman tailback Zach Almash racked up 117 yards in his first start for the Cougars. Both quarterbacks – Mikey Guerrero (GHS) and Sterling Montgomery (CHS) – have held up under the circumstances in their first two starts of their careers.
But glancing at statistics and box scores ultimately leads to overall record. And the Cougars and Mustangs both sit at 0-2.
After enduring a Morgan Hill sweep in the first two weeks of the season, GHS and CHS are looking for win No. 1 in 2012, heading into tonight’s nonleague action.
The Cougars are on the road to face Pacific Grove (1-0), while the Mustangs have their home opener against Monte Vista Christian School (2-0.) Both games are set for 7:30 p.m.
A touchdown with less than one minute to go derailed GHS in its 48-44 loss to Sobrato last week, spoiling an otherwise stand-up performance.
Head coach Brian Boyd said he was “extremely happy” with the effort his players put forth against a rugged Sobrato team – though he did stress that surrendering 48 points isn’t a trend he wants to continue any further.
“We just can’t give up that many,” he said. “We geared practice toward defense this week.”
The MVC Mustangs have picked up two convincing victories over Del Mar (64-0) in Week 1 and Berean Christian (54-14) in Week 2.
The Monterey Bay League co-champions (shared with CHS and Monterey) from a year ago lost a number of key players from that team, but did welcome back Zander Fischer-Tellez, who returns as MVC’s most experienced offensive player. Their leading rusher through two games is Cody Washington (25 carries, 227 yards, three TDs). New starting quarterback Nick Matiasevich is 22-of-34 for 379 yards and seven touchdowns in his first two starts.
“They run an offense similar to ours, so it’s like playing against ourselves,” Boyd said, adding that there is no sense of urgency among the Mustangs. “I think we can win our next two games, and if we can get out of (nonleague) at 2-2, that’s fine. We aren’t scared. We aren’t worried. We know what we need to do.”
Uncharacteristic turnovers – four on special teams – from a usually disciplined Tim Pierleoni squad limited offensive snaps in the Cougars’ 20-7 loss to Live Oak last week.
“As a coaching staff, we looked at ourselves pretty hard,” Pierleoni said Thursday. “For us, all we are going to do is work harder and coach harder. We knew we’d be young and inexperienced, and that has shown on the field so far. But, we aren’t going to step back at all. When you find yourself struggling, you work harder at fixing it.”
Pacific Grove trumped Pajaro Valley 41-20 in its opener Sept. 8. The Breakers, coming off of a 5-4-1 season a year ago, amassed 415 yards of offense in the win over the Grizzlies. Kevin Tesky and Jake Speed each rushed for more than 100 yards, and quarterback Luke Lowell made the most of his four completed passes, which went for 132 yards and two touchdowns.
“They are much improved,” Pierleoni said. “They are playing well, and they have a bunch of speed. We are going to have to play much better than we did last week.”
The Cougars toppled the Breakers 40-0 in 2011.
“We aren’t going to talk about wins and losses. We are talking about playing a mistake free game and the rest will take of itself,” Pierleoni said.
• The Cougars will be without tight end/defensive end Takoda Bowers for the remainder of the season. The senior suffered a knee injury against the Acorns and will need surgery, Pierleoni said.
• The Mustangs will miss middle linebacker Joe Madolora. Gilroy’s leading tackler had an upper body injury against Sobrato and will sit out tonight’s game, Boyd said.
