Although the Gilroy High School football team is primarily known
for its passing, the Mustangs had 116 rushing yards from fullback
Peter Guenther in a 27-19 win at Atascadero Friday.
By Aaron Crutchfield
Special to the Dispatch
ATASCADERO, CALIF. – Gilroy High School’s football team may be primarily known for its passing, but the Mustangs had 116 rushing yards from fullback Peter Guenther in a 27-19 win at Atascadero Friday.
“We were able to run the ball a little more because they did definitely try to defend the short pass and take all those passing lanes away,” Gilroy coach Rich Hammond said.
That’s not to say Gilroy didn’t air it out – quarterback Jamie Jensen was 24-for-37 for 272 yards and no interceptions. Sean Hale had eight catches for 134 yards and Dante Fullard had five catches for 38 yards.
It took a quarter for the Mustangs to get things going. Their first drive went well to start, but a 24-yard touchdown pass from Jensen to Hale was called back because of a holding flag, followed by another holding call and a six-yard sack to force Gilroy to punt on fourth-and-45.
After forcing an Atascadero punt, the Mustangs had another good drive die when Hale’s 14-yard catch ended in a fumble, which gave Atascadero the ball at the Gilroy 43-yard line.
On the Greyhounds’ next play, quarterback Brad Smet found Alex Wolf, who took it 43 yards for a touchdown with 1:38 left in the first quarter. A missed extra-point kick kept the score at 6-0.
A little luck helped the Mustangs finally get on the board early in the second quarter. On fourth-and-three at the 39-yard line, Jensen passed the ball while being hit to Guenther, who was also struck right as he tried to reel in the catch. Rather than the ball falling to the ground, though, receiver Lelan Gettys was in the right spot at the right time, taking the ball that plopped into his hands in for a touchdown. The extra-point kick by Ivan Lopez put Gilroy on top 7-6.
Later in the quarter, Fullard took a lateral from Jensen and passed it 44 yards to Hale for a touchdown with 1:08 left in the half. The extra-point kick made it 14-6 Gilroy, where the score stood at halftime.
A 28-yard field goal by Lopez put the Mustangs ahead 17-6 with 10:34 left in the third quarter.
Atascadero got a big play of its own when Nick Tenhaeff broke loose for a 65-yard touchdown run on the first play following the kickoff, pulling the Greyhounds closer at 17-12.
Gilroy responded with a seven-play, 72-yard drive, capped by a 38-yard Guenther touchdown run to push the lead to 24-12.
Atascadero’s Sterling Bullard then returned the ensuing kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown, but Gilroy responded with a drive from its own 20-yard line that was capped by a 28-yard Lopez field goal with 4:25 left in the third quarter. Holding a 27-19 lead, Gilroy held on as neither team scored again.
The Mustangs had a chance to increase their lead but missed a 26-yard field goal attempt with 8:04 left in the game.
“We fumbled the ball tonight and had a lot of penalties and things like that that are hard to overcome,” Hammond said. “We killed ourselves doing some of those things. And they played very good. They didn’t want to give up the big play and they didn’t really give up any big plays to us. The problem is when we don’t get the big play, then we’ve got to execute and we didn’t execute on our top notch tonight.”
Even so, the Mustangs improved to 2-0 on the season.
“I thought defensively, we played really well. I was very impressed with what they had defensively with Tenhaeff and [Bullard] is a good back … with a good offensive line,” Hammond said. “I was really proud of our kids and how we played defense because they battled, because we kept giving them the ball back and our kids battled and kept getting the ball for us.”
Notes: Gilroy’s offense had almost double the yards of Atascadero, finishing with 498 yards total … Friday’s game marked the first time since Week 4 of last season Gilroy failed to score more than 30 points… At the end of the game, Gilroy planned on kneeling on the ball three times and running out the clock on fourth down. The back umpire, however, lost track of downs because of a delay of game penalty and tried to award possession to Atascadero.
“I did my best not to lose my cool, but that’s probably the most animated I’ve ever been on the sidelines,” Hammond said.
The call was corrected and Gilroy ran out the clock to win.
—
Josh Koehn contributed to this report.
Player of the Week: Peter Guenther, RB
Guenther took advantage of wide rushing lanes as Atascadero tried to prevent big plays over the top. It looks as though the senior fullback is growing into his role after not playing most of his first two years of high school, and serving as a cornerback as a junior. Guenther had his best game as a Mustangs at any level by picking up 116 yards rushing, including a 38-yard touchdowns run, and 30 yards receiving.
“I thought he ran the ball very well,” Hammoind said. “We were able to make them pay with Peter ripping off 20-, 30-yard runs.”
TCAL LEADERS
Passing
Name, School Com Att Yd Int TD
Jensen, Gilroy 35 56 551 2 4
Vallejo, Hollister 26 64 444 1 4
Fales, Palma 14 17 288 0 6
Mi, Ramos, N. Salinas 13 28 269 6 5
Gregg, Salinas 12 33 197 3 2
Rocamora, Alvarez 15 30 161 1 2
Marra, Gilroy 9 14 124 0 2
Aportela, Alisal 9 22 112 1 1
Rushing
Name, School Att Yd Avg
Ma. Ramos, N. Salinas 38 342 9.0
Grant, Alisal 41 329 8.0
Enriquez, Alisal 51 325 6.3
Olivarria, Palma 10 241 24.1
Bautista, N. Salinas 39 230 5.8
Jelks, Salinas 43 192 4.4
Brooks, N. Salinas 10 175 17.5
Melesio, Alvarez 30 140 4.8
Guenther, Gilroy 15 131 8.7
Rosa, Alvarez 10 125 12.5
Jones, Alvarez 14 112 11.1
Padilla, Hollister 19 111 5.8
Cathirell, Hollister 19 89 4.6
Parola, Palma 3 85 28.3
Mancera, Alisal 17 77 4.5
Souza, Salinas 8 74 9.2
Rushing touchdown leaders: Gregg (Salinas) 4, Mr. Ramos (N. Salinas) 3, Olivarria (Palma) 3, Enriquez (Alisal) 3, Grant (Alisal) 3, Rosa (Alvarez) 3
Receiving
Name, School Rec Yds Avg
Hale, Gilroy 12 166 13.8
Fullard, Gilroy 11 209 19.0
McFadden, Hollister 9 154 17.1
Perez, Alvarez 6 104 17.3
Guenther, Gilroy 6 97 16.1
Cathirell, Hollister 6 72 12.0
Ramirez, Alisal 6 58 9.6
Cornell, Hollister 5 146 29.2
Gettys, Gilroy 5 101 20.2
Delgado, Gilroy 5 66 13.2
Jelks, Salinas 5 44 8.8
Martinez, N. Salinas 4 143 35.7
Receiving touchdown leaders: Martinez (N. Salinas) 4, Chernetsky (Palma) 3, Fullard (Gilroy) 3, Gettys (Gilroy) 2, McFadden (Hollister) 2, Olivarria (Palma) 2, Perez (Alvarez) 2.
