But it was D’Shawn Hopkins’ stand on the final play of the first half that may have been the difference.
“That changed the whole game,” said MVC quarterback Quentin MacLeod, who threw three touchdown passes — including two to Parker Noonan — to lead the Mustangs’ offense.
“Instead of them being up 14-10 at the half,” MacLeod added, “we were up 10-7. That changed the game.”
It was just enough to ensure Brandon Boyd’s 325 rushing yards and three touchdowns for Gilroy wouldn’t be in a winning effort.
With the clock ticking toward halftime, Hopkins denied Gilroy’s Bubba Lara of the end zone when he met the receiver at the MVC 1 and drove him backward. While going to the ground, Hopkins tried to wrestle the ball away from Lara, leading to a scuffle among several players. The referees never spotted the ball, however, and the clock ran out on Gilroy, which was out of timeouts.
Afterward, Hopkins said his intention was to run some time off the clock, as Gilroy snapped the ball with roughly 20 seconds remaining.
“I had a hand on the ball, but it was going his way. I didn’t think the whole ruckus would happen,” he said. “But, I guess it worked. Big momentum.”
“That was a big play,” MVC coach David Reese added. “I always tell the kids, you’ve got to keep your composure because that little skirmish took 15 seconds off the clock. That was huge.”
And it may have been the difference. Ten penalties and a few bad snaps that led to three Gilroy fumbles — it recovered two of them — only compounded the problem.
Trailing by four with 4:45 remaining, Gilroy needed to go 70 yards on its final drive in order to leapfrog MVC in the waning moments. But a David Munoz pass on fourth-and-12 near midfield fell incomplete and MVC managed to hold on.
The sophomore Munoz finished 9 of 27 for 69 yards.
“They said our kid had a hold of their kid and if our kid would have released, they would have stopped the clock,” Gilroy coach Brian Boyd said of the first half’s final play. “My thoughts are, it’s still their job to spot the ball, and they never got the ball spotted.”
Gilroy never took the lead in the second half.
“We protected this home,” said MacLeod, who finished 12 of 21 for 191 yards — 108 of which came in the second half. The senior signal-caller said MVC hasn’t lost at home in three years — and it wasn’t going to start Friday in front of a packed house celebrating the school’s homecoming.
Boyd nearly spoiled the party, though. The 5-foot-10, 200-pound senior had 172 yards on 17 carries at halftime, and was a one-man wrecking crew at times. He broke at least six tackles on a 55-yard romp late in the second quarter.
MVC tried to force him toward the outside in the second half.
“They’ve got a stud running back,” Reese said. “It’s a good thing he got tired because we didn’t stop him.”
In three games this season, Boyd has compiled 898 yards and 10 touchdowns on 94 attempts.
He had all three scores for Gilroy on Friday — from 22, 45 and 14 yards.
“Man, our guys fought the whole game,” Reese said. “They fought — fought hard.”
Gilroy’s defense didn’t make it easy on MVC, which started six offensive drives in Gilroy territory.
“Defensively, we played a great game,” Boyd said. “We able were able to stop them.”
MVC only compiled 103 total yards in the first half — compared to Gilroy’s 219 — following several three-and-outs.
Hopkins’ tackle ensured MVC at least held the lead at halftime.
“I thought that the offense picked it up in the second half,” said MacLeod, who hooked with Noonan on a 25-yard touchdown pass and Tristen Bouch on a 23-yard scoring reception in the third quarter. The latter pushed MVC ahead 23-13 with 3:45 remaining in the third quarter.
MacLeod and Noonan connected on a 28-yard score with 2:22 remaining in the second quarter that gave MVC the lead for good.
Devon Ji added a 30-yard field goal in the first quarter for MVC (2-1), which will host King City in its final nonleague game next Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Gilroy (1-2) will return home Friday to face Gonzales at 7:30 p.m.
“They played a good game tonight. They played above, you know. It was their homecoming, and they stepped it up on their homecoming,” Boyd said. “We knew everything they were going to do and everything they had. We just didn’t come out on top.”
Gilroy’s Brandon Boyd rushed for over 300 yards for the second time this season securing his position as the Monterey Bay League leading rusher.
Boyd had 325 yards on 36 carries and three touchdowns against Monte Vista Christian, bring his total on the season to 898 yards so far in this young season.
