Gilroy High football team hopes to end two-game losing streak
with upset of Palma
GILROY – After four straight victories to start their season, turnovers and bad breaks have plagued the garlic gridmen – resulting in back-to-back losses and one tie score.
The Mustangs have dedicated their practices to preventing turnovers – but not helping matters is that perennial private power Palma comes to town this week for a Halloween Night match-up at 7:30 p.m.
“If anything strange happens, it will benefit us,” said head coach Darren Yafai of playing the Chieftains on the spooky holiday.
In last week’s 37-7 loss to Holister in the Prune Bowl, the only strange happenings went against the Mustangs as they fumbled the ball three times, threw two interceptions, and had three touchdowns called back by yellow flags.
“We’re taking potential points off the board for us and handing it right to them. A lot of times we’ve turned the ball over in our own end so we’ve given them a short field to work with,” Yafai said. “Recently, we’ve been shooting ourselves in the foot. You can tell kids don’t fumble it and there’s certain drills you can do to try to minimize that.”
While the Mustangs managed five turnovers last week, Hollister lost only one fumble late in the game.
“A fumble in football is circumstance and bad luck,” Yafai said. “The more we’ve done it the more we’ve focused on it.”
It will be hard to focus on only one player to stop since the Chieftains have lots of weapons – including senior tailback Luke Lippencott (who scored three of Palma’s four touchdowns in last season’s 28-13 win over Gilroy) and junior quarterback Chad Bozzo (who started as a sophomore last season).
“(Lippencott) is a big running back. He’s probably six-foot-one, 200 pounds – which is big for a high school running back. Then he’s extremely tough and fast. He’s the complete package,” Yafai said. “(Bozzo) is one of the best athletes in the league. He might be the most athletic football player in our T-CAL. He’s very fast for a quarterback.”
Palma is 2-0 in T-CAL and 5-2 overall with its only losses coming against De La Salle, the nation’s top ranked high school football team, and Serra, which was the preseason favorite to win the section.
“Year in and year out Palma is one of the top five teams in the Bay Area. They’re well coached and they get the best athletes from probably a 60-mile radius,” Yafai said. “We have a lot of respect for them. Palma’s always a very disciplined team. They get hardworking kids who also work hard in the classroom and academic success transcends onto the football field.”
Palma – a private school in Salinas – has attracted the best players from a 60-mile radius for years and years because of the school’s winning football tradition that grows with every season.
“Palma doesn’t need to recruit because it’s a private school that has a great reputation,” Yafai said. “A school like that doesn’t need to recruit because kids want to go there. Year in and year out, they have some of top talent in the South Bay area.”
Gilroy has lost all five meetings over the last 20 years against Palma – which moved over from the Mission Trail League six seasons ago.
“It’s going to take an incredible effort,” Yafai said. “We’re going to have to play a near perfect game and we’re going to have to have maybe a couple of lucky breaks. I feel we’re a good football team.”
The Chieftains can be beat as demonstrated in recent years. Reigning league champ Salinas defeated them last season and Hollister has won four of the last six games against Palma.
“Hollister’s had their number,” said Yafai, who squad two years ago was in a scoreless tie against Palma before falling in the second half. “We had a shot in that one. They started to pound us (in the second half) and took the momentum.”
The Mustangs are 0-2 in T-CAL and 4-2-1 overall. Two straight losses can weigh heavy on a high school ball club, but Coach Yafai has seen no quit in his players.
“They’re hanging in there,” Yafai said. “I think they’re excited about playing Palma. They get up to play Palma every year because they know they’re playing a great football team and they know they can be that Mustang football team to knock off Palma.”
