Gilroy’s amateur football team shut out by South Bay in GSAFL
conference finals, 21-0
SAN JOSE – Despite a valiant effort against a favored opponent, the Central Coast Barnstormers fell to the South Bay Buccaneers 21-0 in the Golden State Amateur Football League conference finals in Santa Clara on Saturday.
The Gilroy-based Barnstormers semipro football team turned in an inspired defensive effort but couldn’t manage any points against the undefeated Buccaneers, according to Central Coast owner Eric Snyder.
“(South Bay is) a great football team, they’re probably one of the best teams in the country, but our defense did pretty well holding them to 21 points,” Snyder said. “Offensively, we drove the ball on them but we just couldn’t get the ball in (the end zone). We’re really happy with our season – we’ve won 20 games the last two years – but not everybody can be champions. Not yet anyway.”
South Bay (12-0 overall) took a 14-0 halftime lead, then added its final touchdown late in the fourth quarter despite a tough Barnstormers defensive effort led by defensive back David Flores that produced seven interceptions, Snyder said.
“They were averaging 40 points per game so to hold them to 21 points was pretty good,” Snyder said.
According to Snyder, quarterback Bryan Smith, running back Derek Morrison and the rest of the Central Coast offense piled up yardage against the Buccaneers but fell several key first downs short of cashing in with a score.
“It looked like we were playing with them,but we just couldn’t punch it in,” Snyder said. “We couldn’t get the first downs when we needed them.”
Central Coast, which lost to the Buccaneers 42-14 earlier in the year, finished its season at 8-4 overall.
The Barnstormers defeated the Oakland Vipers 34-0 to advance to the conference finale.
As National Football Conference champions, South Bay advances to play the American Football Conference champion Sacramento Wolverines in Golden State Bowl III at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco on Saturday, July 10.
The winner of that game will play the Southern California semipro champions in a newly inaugurated matchup for the state title at Kezar Stadium in November.
Meanwhile, Snyder said the Barnstormers will take a month off after a long season, then will look into traveling to Hawaii to play.
The local team is also organizing the area Punt, Pass and Kick competition for local youth this summer.
By virtue of finishing second in its conference, Central Coast also qualified for the North American Football League national championship tournament in October.
Snyder said the Barnstormers will likely play either the Ogden (Utah) Rhino Raiders or the Eastside Hawks (Washington state).
The Hawks franchise is owned by former Seattle Seahawks and Oakland Raiders defensive lineman Sam Adams.
In addition, several Barnstormers players will likely be chosen to represent the GSAFL at the East-West all-star game at the national semipro football championships in Florida this fall.
Last year, Barnstormers Joe King, Joffre Longoria and Smith all played in the all-star game.
Snyder said he’s hoping to send as many as five players to the all-star game this year, including Smith, Longoria, David Flores and Jeff Ray, among others.
