The latest Prune Bowl result
– a 7-6 Hollister victory Friday night – wasn’t without its
share of controversy.
Unlike last season, though, any griping from the Gilroy side was
kept to a minimum.
The latest Prune Bowl result – a 7-6 Hollister victory Friday night – wasn’t without its share of controversy.
Unlike last season, though, any griping from the Gilroy side was kept to a minimum.
A huge upcoming game against Palma will do that to a team’s focus.
“That’s just the way the cookie crumbles,” senior safety Jared Kaczorowski said. “Obviously, Palma is a great team that we have to prepare and focus for the whole week.
“We just have to look forward.”
A one-point game might at least warrant a brief look back, though – especially after a pair of controversial judgment calls by the referees.
The first came on Mustang kicker Neil Martin’s first-quarter field-goal attempt, which appeared to sail right over the left goal post. While everyone in the Gilroy camp immediately thought three points, the kick was ruled no good.
Video of the game appears to show one of the refs failing to look up before making the call.
“It went in,” Martin said without hesitation. “The linesperson never looked up. It just took a weird curve and came back in.
“The offensive linemen came back and were like, ‘It’s good, right?'”
Martin’s father, Gilroy special teams’ coach Craig Martin, toed the company line.
“We all thought it was good,” he said. “But whatever the ref says is what the ref says. They’re not going to change the call now.”
Two quarters later, though, another Martin kick was at the center of controversy.
After the Mustangs’ scored the game’s first points on an 87-yard touchdown run by Louie Gutierrez, Martin came up short on the extra-point attempt. Of course, the leading scorer among CCS kickers was kicking from 35 yards out.
“We can’t put everything on Neil,” Kaczorowski said. “We can’t put it all on one person.”
Martin’s attempt was moved back 15 yards after a referee called “excessive celebration” on GHS quarterback Peter Mickartz, who stuck up his index finger as Gutierrez ran in the go-ahead score 70 yards down the field.
“I guess that’s a new emphasis the referees’ association is stressing,” Craig Martin said.
According to GHS head coach Darren Yafai, the referee told the Gilroy coaching staff Mickartz’s celebration wasn’t taunting, but that when the finger went into the air he “had to throw the flag.”
Some in the Gilroy camp seemed a bit miffed that no celebration penalties were assessed after a few of the Haybalers’ big plays. And they weren’t alone.
“If they are going to do that,” Hollister coach Chris Cameron said of the celebration crackdown, “they need to be consistent throughout the course of the game.”
At one point in the game – when Kaczorowski raised up his finger to indicate the GHS defense’s “sky call” – one official told him another one of those would mean an ejection, Yafai said.
Nevertheless, the Mustangs and their head coach seemed in no mood for sour grapes as they prepared for the Chieftains at Monday’s practice.
“We don’t care about that,” junior linebacker Taylor Micali said. “We just have to come out and beat Palma. It was a devastating loss, but we can’t cry about it now.”
Fellow linebacker Joe Cano, who noted there were plenty of tears in the lockerroom right after the game, agreed that it’s time to move on.
“Coming off a loss, we’re just gonna have to be even more hungry this week,” he said. “This was just a slight setback. We just have to keep going forward.”
That’s exactly the point Yafai said he’s trying to make to his team this week.
“As a staff and as players, we’re still hurting,” he said. “But we know there’s still four games to go. We’ve told our kids they just had a huge battle and found out they could play with the best of them. Now it’s up to them.
“Are they willing to step up like that for the rest of the season? If they’re willing to give that same type effort, we’ll finish off strong. If not, we could struggle down the stretch like last year.”
After a 4-0-1 start in 2003, the Mustangs folded with a 1-5 finish in the Tri-County Athletic League.
Will this team respond any differently?
“I hope so and I think so,” Yafai said. “We’re older, stronger and better.”
JV/Frosh still unblemished
The news wasn’t all bad for the Mustangs last week.
On Thursday, the freshmen team improved to 5-0-1 with yet another shutout – this one a 20-0 blanking of San Benito.
The junior varsity ‘Stangs (6-0) also remained unbeaten with a 38-20 win over the ‘Balers Friday night. In addition to running a touchdown in, quarterback Matt Hemeon threw a pair of TD passes to Shane Maslanka and Paul Gonzalez.
The team’s other scores came from tailback JoJo Gutierrez and Gonzalez, who tacked on another touchdown with a reverse play.
