WATSONVILLE—The Mustangs are 0-4 no more.
Gilroy coach Brian Boyd said his team would be 1-0 in the Monterey Bay League-Pacific Division when it met Watsonville and he was right. The Mustangs beat the Wildcatz 21-10 in a dominant performance to open league play on the road Friday.
David Montes and David Munoz provided a balanced offensive attack to rack up a combined for 341 of the team’s total 398 yards.
Munoz had 16 completions on 32 attempts for 214 yards and two touchdowns. But the biggest boost to the offense came from Montes who added 127 yards on 18 carries. Gilroy was averaging just 55 yards on the ground heading into this game and amassed only 220 through four games.
Montes made his return to the team after suffering a hamstring injury in Week 1 against Live Oak that left him sidelined until tonight.
“He’s been the missing link and he ran the ball very well,” Boyd said. “There wasn’t any sign of any hamstring injury, so that time off was the right thing to do to get him ready for league; he was a huge part of the offense. If our run games goes, our pass game is going to go.”
Limiting the penalties that had plagued Gilroy all season was part of the focus of practice this week. The Mustangs introduced a new rule: any player who commits personal foul or is called for unsportsmanlike conduct sits an entire quarter—and it looks like they got the message loud and clear.
Gilroy had just three penalties—a delay of game on Coach Boyd, a holding call and personal foul behind the play—displaying great discipline that attributed to the win. The personal foul call came behind the play after Patrick Hsu reached the endzone on a punt return, but the foul negated the play and cost Gilroy points.
“We would’ve had some more points on the board and probably should’ve, but the boys were excited,” Boyd said. “They were in it the whole game and it was the old Gilroy football team playing tonight and it was really nice.”
Montes’ work on the ground helped get Munoz and the Mustangs in scoring position. Munoz threw two touchdowns against the Wildcatz, both to Riley Filice-Hollar for 12 and 15 yards, respectively.
Kyle Loera intercepted Watsonville with three minutes left in the first and returned it for a pick six. Hsu connected with Filice-Hollar for the 2-point conversion and the Mustangs led 8-0.
The defense had a shutout until the final quarter and even stopped Watsonville at it’s one-yard-line to force a turnover. Gilroy then tried to run it out of there, but was tackled in the endzone for a safety, putting Watsonville on the scoreboard 21-2.
The Mustangs were then forced to punt and the Wildcatz returned it to the endzone for their only TD of the game.
Gilroy (1-4 overall, 1-0 in league) will host Alisal (1-4 overall, 1-0 in league) at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10. The Trojans also picked up their first win of the year, a 33-13 victory over Pajaro Valley at home.
Boyd said he’ll look for his team to do the same things it did in this game against Alisal next week.
“This was a great step forward from what we have been doing: being disciplined and going out there and being balanced,” Boyd said. “If we could be balanced on both sides of the ball, do what we did tonight and stay disciplined, I think we’re going to be successful. We should be right in any game.”
