GILROY
– Opponents are not getting any easier for the Gilroy High
football team – which will open their Tri-County Athletic League
schedule Friday night against Salinas, the defending Division II
section champions.
GILROY – Opponents are not getting any easier for the Gilroy High football team – which will open their Tri-County Athletic League schedule Friday night against Salinas, the defending Division II section champions.
The struggling Mustangs (1-4) will have a strong homecoming crowd and all the added adrenaline that goes along with it – but the Cowboys (4-1) will bring star quarterback Andy Palacios and first-team All-Leaguer Christian Taylor for the Gilroy defense to deal with.
“Usually homecoming brings out some extra school spirit from the student body, the student population as a whole,” head coach Darren Yafai said. “What I found is, yeah, football players get a little more excited for homecoming, but as soon as the game gets underway and that opening kickoff happens it’s another game.”
It’s another tall order for the Mustang defensive unit – which held a lethal Alvarez offense to only 10 points until the final five minutes of last week’s 24-0 road loss. Salinas runs an option offense orchestrated by the ever-dangerous Palacios.
“He’s extremely fast. In another offense, he could be a tailback. He runs the ball a lot like Danny Gallo used to run it for us. But he’s also a very good thrower, too,” said Yafai of Palacios. “Option weeks are tough… The problem is with a kid like this even when you’re sound in you’re option responsibilities and you have guys going to the right spots, he still can make a bunch of people miss and be off to the races.”
Gilroy has been working hard all week in practice to make sure that does not happen – but then there is the playmaking abilities of Taylor, the Cowboys’ version of slash who returns both punts and kicks, starts at free safety, and runs the ball on offense. Yafai believes Taylor is “the best all-around football players in the league.”
“He’s extremely dangerous. He’s a big kid. He’s about six-one, 200 pounds. He’s like a college sized athlete,” said Yafai of Taylor. “Because he’s on a bunch of special teams and returns punts and kicks, he also plays offense but they don’t use him exclusively on offense. But when he does get in the game on offense, you know they’re getting him the ball.”
Last year, the playoff-bound Mustangs dropped a close game against Salinas at ‘The Pit’ – losing their lead in the final minute. But this year while Gilroy is struggling for survival, the Cowboys are making a run towards a second straight section championship.
“Right now it’s obvious. People in sports circles they want to be optimistic, but they’re not really realistic. Right now, realistically, we’re facing a better football team than us. They have a better record than us,” said Yafai of Friday’s match-up. “We’re going into this game ready to give 110 percent to try to win this one, but we’re the underdog.
“Last year, I thought the Rams were a much better football team than the New England Patriots and the Patriots won that Super Bowl.”
The Mustang offense – which was shutout last week for the first time in offensive coordinator Tim Pierleoni’s career – is still battling a season-long struggle to finish off drives in the red zone. Gilroy could be without the services of senior tailback J.L. Mangono (disciplinary action) for part or all of Friday’s game.
“We’ve had some problems in the red zone and we’ve had some problems holding on to the football,” said Yafai at Wednesday’s practice. “We definitely have to develop a killer instinct to finish drives. All year long, all five of our games, we drove the ball down the field we just sputtered. We haven’t been able to finish it off in the red zone.”
For two straight weeks, the Mustangs had first-quarter touchdowns taken away due to penalties. Last week, junior tight end Roger Ortiz scored a 26-yard TD that was erased because of a holding penalty. Gilroy would of had an early 7-0 lead. After a missed field goal, the offense came up empty-handed. Meanwhile, Alvarez scored 24 unanswered.
“We watched some film on (the Ortiz touchdown.) It was actually good blocking. We have no idea why they called holding on our center,” Yafai said.
Kick-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and the homecoming parade begins at 3 p.m.
