GILROY
– Christopher High School scored early and often Friday night
before settling down to blank the visiting Pacific Grove Breakers
40-0 at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex. Read story and watch video
GILROY – Christopher High School scored early and often Friday night before settling down to blank the visiting Pacific Grove Breakers 40-0 at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex.
One week after handing Live Oak a 50-0 setback, coach Tim Pierleoni’s Cougars wasted little time in fashioning a similar victory on home turf. Only the two teams’ agreement after six minutes of the second half to use a full running clock likely kept the Cougars from breaking 50 points again.
“Playing Christopher High is going to pay dividends for us down the road,” Pacific Grove coach Chris Morgan said. “Tim does a great job with that group. They ran some power at us and made us defend the edges. That’s a fine football team.”
Sophomore Rayshon Mills scored four touchdowns in limited touches in the first half, as CHS defense limited Pacific Grove to 18 yards of total offense and one first down as the Cougars went into the intermission with a 34-0 lead.
“The defensive coaches did a good job of scouting and preparing the kids,” Pierleoni said. “Pacific Grove is a good team, but we were a little more physical this time.”
Senior quarterback Brandon Pickens, who threw the ball a combined 60 times in the Cougars’ first two games, had just eight attempts for 144 yards and one touchdown before exiting play in the third quarter.
“Brandon’s very good managing the game,” Pierleoni said. “He kept his mistakes to a minimum. We’d like to throw the ball, but what we were doing on the ground was working, so there was no reason to change. Running gives our linemen a chance to block some people.”
Pacific Grove was limited to less than one yard per rush, as Cougars Nik Slater, Dillon Babb, Bryant Cid and others kept the speed-oriented Breakers from getting yardage on the perimeter.
The Cougars’ strong tempo led to four scoring drives of less than 100 seconds.
Christopher High claimed a 7-0 lead after taking the opening kickoff and marching 59 yards on five plays in 99 seconds. Mills slashed off left tackle for the final 19 yards, bursting past the defensive secondary untouched with 10:21 left in the first quarter.
Pacific Grove punted on its first possession, yet regained the ball on a fumbled return. The Breakers had a second three-and-out, leading to the team’s second of nine punts on the night. Christopher took over at its own 19, then went 81 yards to pay dirt on eight plays in 3:10 – the key play, a short pass from Pickens to Marcus Harrell that turned into a 44-yard play when Harrell was able to turn the corner past the defense. When Mikey Pirnik influenced one defender to veer out of the middle of the field on a third-and-13 play. Mills was able to cut through the seam of the defense untouched and take Pickens’ pass for a 27-yard score.
Christopher’s next series resulted in an 85-second march covering 55 yards for the 20-0 edge with 11:52 left in the half. Harrell turned in a 22-yard scamper before Mills scored from 10-yards out for a touchdown, following a block by Cid at the goal line.
Although the Cougars were thwarted on the next series when a deflected pass gave the visitors an interception, Christopher came back with a three-play march covering 67 yards for a 27-0 advantage. Pirnik turned a swing pass into a 47-yard jolt around the right flank to the Breaker seven. Slater covered the final seven yards, with 6:28 left in the half.
Christopher added another three-play touchdown drive with 3:45 to go in the half as Mills methodically danced through the Pacific Grove defense for a 23-yard score.
“I waited for blockers to line up so that I could make the cutback,” Mills said of the highlight touchdown of the night. “The line blocked well and there was good downfield blocking by the receivers too.”
The Cougars managed one touchdown in the first series of the second half to complete the scoring. Harrell’s 11-yard rush was the key play in the four-play drive that ended on a Pickens’ sneak from one yard out.
— The Cougars are not scheduled to play again for two weeks when Monterey Bay League play begins with Christopher hosting powerhouse Monterey High on Sept. 30. “This gives us two weeks to prepare for an extremely good football team,” Pierleoni said.
