GILROY—Christopher fell just four points shy of beating Carmel and going 3-0. But with all the things the Cougars did right against the Padres, they aren’t hanging their heads.
“Whenever you lose, you’re a little heartbroken of course,” CHS coach Tim Pierleoni said. “The kids showed some heart. Our kids picked each other up and those things were really, really the most important part of that game. Sometimes you learn more when you lose than when you win. I think this is one of those times when we did learn a little bit more.”
Junior quarterback Matt Adamkiewicz was stellar once again for Christopher, going 29 for 45 and racking up 394 yards in the team’s 34-31 loss. He threw three of the four touchdowns and an interception in the process. The young QB has amassed 1,003 yards and eight touchdowns in the young season, but may have taken the loss harder than the rest of his teammates.
“I think after that game he was more heartbroken than anyone else on the team even though he played so well; it may have hurt him worse than anybody,” Pierleoni said. “He’s very serious about what he does on the football field and off. He’s just starting to scratch the surface of how good he’s going to be.”
The Cougars will look to Adamkiewicz to break through Hillsdale’s Cover 4 defense when the two teams meet at 2 p.m. Sept. 27 in San Mateo. While the Knights will be double-teaming the wide receivers, they’ll have to decide which one to hone in on. Christopher has multiple WRs who can break free for big yards. Both Max Sanford and PJ Reichert accumulated over 100 yards against Carmel—134 and 117, respectively—against a tough Padres defense.
And it’s no fluke.
Anthony Sammut recorded 110 yards receiving in Week 2 against Live Oak and 93 in the opener against Sobrato. Despite their success, Pierleoni said he knows Hillsdale’s defense isn’t one to take lightly. It’s held it’s last two opponents to a combined 13 points.
“They do a great job with what they do and how they react to the run and the pass,” Pierleoni said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us, definitely, but that’s why we schedule these guys and that’s why we play the game. Steel sharpens steel and that’s what we’re looking to do right now.”
The Cougars defense need only look at its offensive teammates to know what to expect this week. Hillsdale’s Brett Wetteland was held to just 79 yards in the air in last week’s 21-7 win over Capuchino, but has racked up 597 yards with four touchdowns for far this season. The Knights also have a strong running game, led by James Hollon who scored all three of the team’s TDs while racking up 138 yards on 38 carries.
Hollon, Wetteland and the rest of the Knights will need to get around Jacob Moen and Joseph Lujan who combined for 34 of the team’s 88 tackles against Carmel.
With such a close match-up, the game will come down to mistakes. Christopher fumbled twice last week and threw an interception—something it can’t afford this week.
“We don’t want to turn the ball over, we don’t want to make penalties,” Pierleoni said. “I think again that’s going to be the key and us handling their defense. Us being able to move the ball on their defense and be successful. I think our defense is a very good defense and we can do a good job defensively. I think offensively, they’re tough. We’ve got to come to play.”
