GILROY—After being handed a 42-6 loss by Half Moon Bay in its home opener, Gilroy is receiving some tough love from the coaching staff this week.
“We’re holding kids accountable,” Mustangs coach Brian Boyd said. “We had a different practice yesterday; it was a little more intense. Coaches were in kids’ faces and kids were holding each other accountable for stuff. We’ve got to do something to change our results.”
The Cougars dominated time of possession and put up the numbers to prove it. HMB racked up 287 yards of total offense to Gilroy’s 193, leaving the Mustangs’ defense worn down well before the clock ran out—but that’s not saying it’s not doing its job. The offense was only able to pick up eight first downs, which was partially thanks to Gilroy’s 11 penalties for 125 yards.
The Mustangs will be focusing on controlling the clock and moving the ball against Piedmont Hills this week, which will translate to keeping it’s defense off the field.
“Yeah, we’ve given up some numbers, but if you look at first half stats from our games our defense is doing its job,” Boyd said. “They can’t be out there three quarters of the game and expect to not give up points. …We’ve got so many guys playing both ways and we just can’t hold up to it.”
Piedmont Hills, like Gilroy, runs a spread offense and that has the defense excited. The Pirates are more prone to throw the ball and when they do, they go deep. Quarterback Marcus Romero racked up 250 yards in the team’s 56-20 loss to Bellarmine on Sept. 19 and is averaging around15 yards per throw. Piedmont Hills features two solid wide receivers who will go after the ball in Aaron Tillak and Isaiah Stewart who had 118 and 94 yards, respectively, and each scored a touchdown.
The Mustangs are looking to make Tillak and Stewart a non-factor by aggravating them and providing tight coverage.
“We practice against it every single day—they do exactly what we do. We’re working on being more physical with the receivers,” Boyd said. “The receivers don’t like to be frustrated and we’re going to try to frustrate them. We’ll get physical with them off the line of scrimmage and frustrate them and make them get mad.”
While junior QB David Munoz showed great improvement against Half Moon Bay—he went 16 for 26 for 144 yards and a touchdown compared to going 6 for 27 for 30 yards in Week 2—the Mustangs still need more out of him and they’re prepared to get it any way possible. Patrick Hsu has taken reps as a back-up QB and will provide healthy competition as well as allow the team to pull Munoz for a down or two to regroup if he needs it. Munoz has also gone live at practice, providing more of an in-game experience which Boyd hopes will pay off come Friday night.
“I’m that confident in these kids’ abilities. We have the Sophomore of the Year right now and I thought David (Munoz) would be MVP of the whole league—he’s the best quarterback I’ve seen—and he hasn’t even been close to his capabilities,” Boyd said.
“It is a risk, but he has to know what pressure is like,” he continued about making Munoz live at practice. “If I’m going to get hit, I better do something.”
The Pirates run a 4-4 defense, but do so with man-to-man coverage—a trait Boyd is hopeful his offense can capitalize on.
“They bail off and give a lot of cushion, so I think we can get some stuff underneath on them, but we’ll see,” he said.
Even if its offense and defense executes perfectly, Gilroy still needs to stop penalties and fumbles. Gilroy fumbled five times, only one of which it lost, and sacrificed 17 crucial yards late in the game because of one.
Boyd is hoping to eliminate mistakes by slowing things down, noting that he’s not in a hurry to run plays and instead wants his players to concentrate on their routes.
Gilroy will host Piedmont Hills at 7:30 p.m. Friday for its last game before league play begins.
“To get a win going into league would be a huge momentum shift for our program,” Boyd said. “Even to come out with a good game and be competitive and not get run out of a stadium—especially our own—would be huge for our program. …We’ve got to get off to a fast start. We’re going to try to hang with them, put some points on the board and see what happens.”
