GILROY – In his first game back since Week 2, junior running
back Julius Travis broke off an 85-yard touchdown run late in the
third quarter but by then the game was already well out of reach as
the Gilroy High football team fell to Palma 35-7 at Garcia-Elder
Sports Complex on Friday night.
GILROY – In his first game back since Week 2, junior running back Julius Travis broke off an 85-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter but by then the game was already well out of reach as the Gilroy High football team fell to Palma 35-7 at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex on Friday night.
With the Gilroy coaching staff receiving word Wednesday that usual starting quarterback, Nick Marra, would miss Friday’s game with the flu, a make-shift offensive game plan was put together in efforts to give backup quarterback Tommy Silvas the necessary means to work with. The result was a discombobulated mixture of option-style plays and short passing routes that led to just three first downs in the game.
The consequence of the Mustangs’ (2-5-1, 1-2-1) offensive ineffectiveness was a defense that spent much of the game on the field – in the realm of 71 Palma plays.
The defense was up to the task in the first half, holding the Chieftains (6-1-1, 4-0) to a missed field goal on their first drive and a punt on their second series.
Nearing the end of the first quarter, however, following a Mustang three-and-out, Palma took over from the Gilroy 37-yard line. Five plays later on fourth-and-four, Chieftains quarterback Austen Fales hit Bruce Tayor for a 17-yard score, the first of five unanswered touchdowns by the visiting team.
“The effort on defense is there, we just get so tired,” senior linebacker Mark Salazar said. “We tend to falter and we started making more mistakes the longer we were out there. That’s what’s killing us is those little mistakes.”
Palma, who sits atop the Tri County Athletic League standings with San Benito, tacked on another Fales-to-Taylor touchdown with three minutes remaining in the half.
Despite trailing 14-0, the Mustangs looked as though they could get themselves back in the game in the second half, a half in which the Mustangs have played some of their better football this season. But a back-breaking opening drive of the third quarter by Palma that covered 61 yards in just five plays culminating with a Jack Baird 3-yard touchdown run, seemed to take all the air out of the Mustangs sideline.
“It’s about finishing,” head coach Greg Garcia said. “We start strong, we build confidence. We have to keep our engine running.”
The Chieftains ran 16 plays from scrimmage in the third quarter, scoring three touchdowns in the process. The Mustangs had just five offensive plays.
“What are we building to?” Garcia said. “We have two more games that we need to get ‘W’s’ in. How we prepare during the week, watching film, taking care of business and paying attention are what is going to finish this. I guarantee you the schools we are going to play are doing the right things.”
The Mustangs host North Salinas, winners against Alvarez 56-34 on Friday, next week in the final home game of the year, before taking on San Benito, who defeated Salinas 29-10 this week, in the Prune Bowl.
