Gilroy goes up against Monte Vista Christian’s double-wing
offense
GILROY – It may look like rugby on Saturday when the unbeaten Mustang gridmen travel to Monte Vista Christian School in Watsonville – but, as long as Gilroy come out of the pile with ball, everything will be fine and dandy.
“They run the double-wing offense – which looks like a rugby scrum. I’ve never in my 13 years of coaching high school football ever coached against it, ever in my life,” said head coach Darren Yafai, who’s been planning for something altogether new this week. “Some people call it the scrum offense. It’s called the double-wing. It’s very tight splits, two tight end set, two wings right outside the tight end and a fullback that’s about a yard behind the quarterback.”
When Monte Vista defeated Gilroy 35-7 at home last season, it used a pro-style offense. This year the MVC coaching staff returned to the double wing set that isn’t pretty, but can be very confusing.
“It’s just a scrum. It’s a pile offense. They do a lot of tosses, but the tosses are inside, power sweeps. The quarterback is the lead blocker on a lot of the different plays.,” Yafai said. “Unfortunately for us and other schools that face it, you have a lot of adjustments and a lot of preparation that you have to make. They take you out of your regular defensive sets.”
The Gilroy defense has been a brickwall this season – allowing only one touchdown per game in back-to-back weeks against Santa Cruz and San Lorenzo Valley. They have another big test this Saturday. Kick-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.
“They are a possession team. They want to keep the ball on the ground. They want to chew time off the clock and mow the ball down the field at about four yards a chunk,” Yafai said. “They don’t throw the ball a whole lot. They’ll throw it when they need to here and there to mix it up. They probably average throwing it six times a game, but when they do they’re pretty efficient with it because teams aren’t really ready for it.”
Two key players in the MVC backfield are fullback Kyle Bokariza (6-3, 210) – who doubles as the middle linebacker – and quarterback Mike Turner – who was the team’s starting defensive back last season.
“He is a middle backer and fullback that’s real tough and athletic,” said Yafai of Bokariza, who is one of many two-way players for the 28-man MVC roster. “They probably have seven, eight kids on that team that play both sides of the ball.”
Santa Cruz had 33-man roster, and Gilroy wore the Cardinals’ two-way players down in the second half. Something the 59-deep Mustangs are counting on again this week.
“I feel this is game that when it gets to the second half we should have an advantage because we should be a lot more fresh than them because they’re going to be on the field the whole time,” said Yafai at Thursday’s practice on the Gilroy High fields.
The Mustangs (3-0) have also been forced to make some changes this week. Sophomore center Bobby Best is out and will be replaced by senior Eric Lara – who has been platooning in at defensive tackle. Yafai hopes to have Best back by next Friday night’s home game against Alvarez. In addition, starting defensive tackle John Paul Vasquez is out sick.
“We’ve had a lot of kids sick this week and have some injuries – but we should be able to overcome that,” Yafai said.
The Mustangs are looking to avenge another loss of last season on Saturday. They have already beaten Terra Nova in week-one and SLV in week-three – who both defeated Gilroy last year.
“Last year was a matter of we had three touchdowns called back in the first half. It was one of those games when you think you’re the better team and you come out losing,” Yafai said. “If you have three touchdowns called back in the first half, sooner or later you’re going to run out of chances.”
This season the Mustangs have been powered by tailbacks Melvin Bryant – the T-CAL’s leading rusher with 307 yards on 28 carries – and Marty Sustaita – who averages 7.1 yards per carry. Senior slinger Ben Hemeon is the T-CAL’s second highest rated passer after three weeks – throwing for 211 yards and two touchdowns.
“I don’t think you’re going to see anything too new. This week has been a week of just polishing things,” Yafai said. “I think we’re going to do what we do – spread it around, throw the ball some, mix up the inside and outside running game, and keep them off-balance.”
The Mustang offense has improved each week with turnovers – losing five to Terra Nova, two to Santa Cruz, and none to SLV.
“We still keep focusing on the fact that our schedule only gets tougher,” Yafai said.
