GILROY – The gauntlet has been lowered, the tone has been set
and a new era of football in Gilroy is officially underway.
The atmosphere surrounding Garcia-Elder Sports Complex on Friday
night as the freshman teams from Gilroy High and Christopher High
squared off in the first ever meeting on the football field between
the two crosstown schools was one rarely experienced at a
freshman-level game.
As the game wore on, the intensity grew, and a contest
deadlocked 6-6 at halftime soon became a Cougars 19-6 victory.
GILROY – The gauntlet has been lowered, the tone has been set and a new era of football in Gilroy is officially underway.
The atmosphere surrounding Garcia-Elder Sports Complex on Friday night as the freshman teams from Gilroy High and Christopher High squared off in the first ever meeting on the football field between the two crosstown schools was one rarely experienced at a freshman-level game.
As the game wore on, the intensity grew, and a contest deadlocked 6-6 at halftime soon became a Cougars 19-6 victory.
“We built on that intensity,” Christopher head coach Manual Muro said. “The thrill of the game was there very much so. We were just at a whole different level of play.”
There was one phrase that was murmured throughout both sidelines and in the stands – “this is history.” The “Garlic Bowl” or the “Crosstown Clash” or whichever catchy name the series will be referred to in the future, one thing is certain, the tradition of the Mustangs vs. the Cougars is off to quite a start.
Both teams left it all out on the field, each with school pride and each player wanting the win as much as the next.
“They wanted to represent the school well,” Mustangs coach Tim Jones said. “They wanted to come out and do the best they could. I think you’re going to see a game like this all the time. You are going to see this become more and more heated, especially when it becomes a varsity match up.”
The game began as a stalemate as neither offense did much with the ball in the first quarter. The Mustangs capitalized on a Cougars mistake on the first play of the second quarter.
A botched hand off between Cougars quarterback Brian Delgado and running back Patrick Valdez put the ball on the turf and Mustangs linebacker Ricardo Alvarado was there to pick up the fumble. Alvarado raced 45 yards for a touchdown to give the Mustangs the lead, 6-0.
The Cougars held great field position throughout the first half starting at the Mustangs’ 31 yard line, and 26 yard line on back-to-back possessions but could not convert the advantage into points until late in the half.
Following a punt, the Cougars took over from the Mustangs 30 with 1:36 left before the break.
Four plays later, Delgado and Valdez atoned for their earlier mistake, connecting for a 10-yard touchdown and tying the game at 6-6.
The Mustangs tried to exploit a size advantage between their wide receivers and the Cougars secondary. The plan was there but the execution fell just short, as quarterback Michael Guerrero and receiver Josh Salgado could never connect on the deep ball.
“We thought we could beat them over the top,” Jones said. “We wanted to get vertical on them. We took a shot at it a couple times and just missed it. It happens.”
The Cougars focused most of their offense on the ground and began to wear down the Mustangs as the third quarter went on.
“We made some switches on the offensive line and the blocking was a lot better,” Muro said.
Valdez capped a 13-play, 49-yard drive for the Cougars putting the them up 12-6 with a little more than two minutes remaining in the third.
On their next series of downs, the Cougars struck one final time on a well-designed bootleg play. Delgado faked the hand off and raced untouched to the left corner of the end zone.
“The defensive end was crashing down the line pretty hard so I decided to fake it,” Delgado said. “We’ve been looking forward to (the game) the whole season.”
