Mustangs score early, but Serra’s running game too much in 40-14
loss
Gilroy – Serra was as good as advertised on offense.
And yet Gilroy had enough “what-ifs,” as in two touchdowns called back because of penalties, that could have turned Friday night’s game at Garcia-Elder Fieldinto a competitive football contest.
It was the Padres who made the big plays that helped the West Catholic League powerhouse to a 40-14 win.
“That’s the best offensive team I’ve seen in six years,” GHS coach Rich Hammond said. “It seemed like every time we made a tackle it was a touchdown-saving tackle, and when we missed it went for a touchdown.”
That’s about how it went for the Mustangs (1-3), who had their chances against Serra but again had costly mistakes and had two touchdowns called back because of penalties.
“They are only a few steps away from being a great football team,” said Padres coach Patrick Walsh. “Give them a lot of credit. They put up a huge fight. With a few tweaks they are going to be a great football team in the future.”
The future is now at Serra (3-1), whose only loss came against national power De La Salle, 40-28. With Deleon Eskridge leading the way, the Padres rushed for 376 yards and had 452 yards of total offense. They never punted and the only time they didn’t score was after fumbles halted their drives. Tyler Maslanka and Michael Stromecki recovered the fumbles for GHS.
But the Mustangs had Serra on its heels in the first quarter. Gilroy took the opening kickoff and marched 80 yards in 11 plays with Paul Gonzales’ 17-yard touchdown run capping the drive. On a pooch kickoff, Edward Valdez recovered the ball and the Mustangs were again in business at the Padres’ 35. A quarterback sack put GHS in an immediate hole and it was unable to get the first down.
It was six minutes into the game when the vaunted Serra offense made its first appearance. The Padres marched 70 yards in nine plays for the equalizer.
And then they turned the game over to Eskridge, a gifted junior transfer from Antioch High. The 5-11, 178-pound Eskridge raced 53 yards for his first of three touchdowns and finished with 202 yards on 10 carries. The Padres also got 67 yards on six carries from Tiuke Tuipuloyu.
“He’s got a combination of good vision and great speed,” Walsh said of Eskridge. “We’ve worked hard with him to make the right cuts. If he continues to do it, he’s going to be a special kid.”
He already is a special kid in the eyes of Hammond.
“He’s an incredible football player,” Hammond said.
Not to be outdone was the Mustangs’ Gonzales, who had a strong game himself with 150 yards on 29 carries. He would have surpassed 200 except he had a 65-yard touchdown run called back on a holding call away from the play.
“Penalties killed us again,” Gonzales said. “It’s the little mistakes that we need to overcome. We have to be able to finish better. Still, you could see we made large improvements. We took a big step forward from Oak Grove.”
One week after getting just 93 yards of total offense, the Mustangs nearly quadrupled that total with 365 yards. They turned the ball over only once and quarterback Marc Vegas was sharp with his passing, completing 12 of 16 for 116 yards, including a 6-yard TD pass to Marshad Johnson with two seconds left in the game. Johnson caught game-high six passes.
While the game wasn’t close in the second half, it could have been if GHS had been able to take advantage of recovering the pooch kick after its first TD, or if the first half hadn’t ended with the Mustangs on the Serra 1. Those were the major “what-ifs” that plagued GHS.
“We needed to catch a break or two,” Hammond said. “With how hard we played, if we had caught a break we would have been in the game. We needed to be able to run the ball and put it in the end zone. We ran the ball and didn’t put it in the end zone.
“Penalties pulled us out of the end zone twice. Still, if we show this type of energy I believe we can be one of the top teams in the TCAL.”
JV, FROSH The Gilroy junior varsity suffered its first defeat when Serra scored twice in the final five minutes for a 20-7 win. The Padres freshman team also won, 15-7.
