Local high school football really is the gift that keeps on
giving.
Local high school football really is the gift that keeps on giving. In Hollister last Friday night, the Haybalers were nothing short of dominant in whipping Milpitas 47-0 in their first-round CCS playoff game.
Up in San Jose on Saturday, Gilroy High’s defense kept the Mustangs in their playoff game until the sensational Justin Sweeney outdid himself yet again with a 30-yard touchdown run with 25 seconds left to beat Independence. Live Oak, overmatched against Oak Grove to the tune of a 54-13 first-round CCS exit, nevertheless put together a superlative 8-3 season which included a win over those heart-attack kids from Gilroy High.
So, yeah, it’s a good time to be a fan. Especially good for your new columnist, who this time two weeks ago was convinced he’d be spending the dead period before the NFL playoffs: a) Calculating the over-under on objects thrown at his TV screen during Niners games; b) snoozing through Coppin St. vs. Iona on ESPN2’s unwatchable preseason basketball schedule; and c) following Brian Sabean’s pursuit of Nap Lajoie to plug up second base before the arbitration deadline.
Instead I find myself in the middle of a regular Golden Age of area football. Good times like these deserve to be remembered, even as we’re enjoying them. Take Sweeney, as gifted a player to emerge from these parts since a certain pair of Jeffs, Garcia and Ulbrich, were roaming local football fields. Justin Time’s not only got the breakaway moves, he’s got the press relations thing down, too. “The key was the O-line,” he told the Dispatch after the epic win over Independence. Gotta give your boys props. Gotta know which side your bread’s buttered on.
Next thing you know, Sweeney will be handing out Rolexes or Isotoner gloves to his blockers at the end of the season, a la Dickerson and the original Sweetness, Walter Payton.
Kidding aside, we can look forward to at least another week of Sweeney and the gang, though this Oak Grove squad the Mustangs will be facing Friday is no Independence, as the Acorns found out last week. One could forgive Haybaler fans if they’re secretly looking past the Wilcox game in San Benito’s bracket on Saturday to the title game two weeks from now. Not that Wilcox isn’t tough, it’s just that you have to love the championship chances of a Hollister team that is so clearly running on full throttle right now.
For GHS, the climb ahead is significantly more of the uphill variety, re: Oak Grove. And yet, and yet … how great would it be if the section title game happened to be a rumble between these old area rivals? How great would a cross-county pitched battle for the Mother of All Prunes really be?
Hey, I’m not trying to jinx it … just saying, is all.
But despite the different roads to the title game they travel down, there is one factor this weekend that will even things up a tad between the Mustangs and the Balers. It’s the homefield advantage, or lack thereof, in the semifinals being played at San Jose City College. No one can calculate how much or how little, but at least some part of San Benito’s and Oak Grove’s dominance last weekend can be attributed to playing at home. Both the Balers and the Mustangs, who’ve already shown they can get it done away from their home ground, now attend to the rest of their business on neutral territory.
That’s not a small thing. Especially in football, where the homefield advantage is the most pronounced of all the major sports. (It’s fairly important in basketball and almost negligible in baseball. Meanwhile, in hockey, these days, the home-ice advantage just means your player rep gets to stand around making cellphone calls without worrying about roaming charges … but that’s the subject of another column.)
Gilroy fans came out in full force to the Independence game, turning the San Jose school’s homefield advantage into a wash, at best. No doubt they’ll all be there for the Oak Grove clash as well. Fact is, the gauntlet has been thrown down before all you San Benito fans. Come Saturday, you’d better be prepared to shake off the turkey and taters and trek on up to San Jose to support your team, the way the GHS folks did last weekend.
You’ll do it if you too dream about a second, even more magical Prune Bowl to end the year.
You’ll do it if you want high school football to continue to be the gift that keeps on giving.
