CASTROVILLE — North Monterey County may have prepared for Brandon Boyd’s rushing attack, but they seemed to have no answer for him as a kickoff returner.
Gilroy’s No. 24 had back-to-back returns — for 90 and 85 yards — accounting for only two of his six touchdowns in the game. Boyd led his team to a 55-7 win over NMC on the road on a chilly Saturday afternoon on the coast.
“That’s the most I’ve scored so I’m pretty stoked,” he said. “I want to give more to my teammates though because I don’t want to be the only one that scores.”
Boyd had 18 carries for 250 yards and six touchdowns in the game, giving him a total of 425 all-purpose yards in the game. He currently has 1,981 yards through seven games.
The cooler weather seemed to affect the Gilroy offense early on. Despite the two kickoff returns, the Mustangs (5-2 overall, 3-0 league) were unable to get much else in the first half. The Condors swarmed Boyd on almost every play, holding him to just 61 yards in the first half and the Mustangs to a 21-7 lead.
“Everyone is coming to stop him (Brandon) and they did,” Coach Brian Boyd said. “I think he had negative yards in the first quarter. They did a really good job. (They) had us nervous, had us worried even at halftime. But the defense tightened up, did their job like usual and stepped it up — it was good.”
Gilroy has now scored 234 points through its last four games.
The Mustangs defense was stellar was usual, almost coming up with the shutout had it not been for an early Condor touchdown — an eight-yard pass from Jordan Graves to Carlos Anaya with 6:30 left in the first.
“The first half we weren’t satisfied with our performance as far as defense goes,” senior linebacker Julian Carabajal said. “We knew we had to step it up and bring the intensity, do we what we came here to do and get the ‘W’.”
MVC was held to 208 yards of total offense to Gilroy’s 833 — which includes the two kickoff returns.
The Mustangs will finally be back on their own turf after not playing there for the past three weeks. They will be up against their toughest opponent to date, the undefeated Everett Alvarez Eagles (7-0 overall, 4-0 league) at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
With homecoming and basically the Monterey Bay Pacific League title on the line, Brandon Boyd said the Mustangs need to kick things up a notch for next week.
“We’ve got to prep really hard for them,” the senior running back said. “(We have to) watch a lot of film and go out there and do our thing and we’ll come out on top.”
Gilroy 55, North Monterey County 7
Gilroy 14 7 20 14 — 55
North Monterey County 7 0 0 0— 7
GHS — Brandon Boyd 90-yard kickoff return (Alex Vega kick), 11:38
NMC — Carlos Anaya 8-yard pass from Jordan Graves (PAT good), 6:30
GHS — Boyd 85-yard kickoff return (Vega kick), 6:16
GHS — Boyd 2-yard run (Vega kick), 1:02
GHS — Boyd 30-yard run (Vega kick), 10:15
GHS — Boyd 87-yard run (Vega kick), 6:55
GHS — Boyd 14-yard run (PAT no good), 5:30
GHS — Riley Filice-Hollar 5-yard pass from David Munoz (Vega kick), 10:30
GHS — Munoz 6-yard run (Vega kick), 4:44
TEAM STATISTICS
GHS NMC
First downs 22 26
Rushes-Yards 26-272 35-123
Passing yards 131 87
Comp.-Att.-Int. 9-21-2 8-17-2
Fumbles-Lost 1-1 1-1
Penalties-Yards 8-60 4-20
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Gilroy: Brandon Boyd 18-250; David Montes 4-15; David Munoz 3-7; North Monterey County: Carlos Anaya 20-59; Josh Garnett 10-26; Jose Garcia 1-32; Jordan Graves 4-6
PASSING — Gilroy: David Munoz 9-21-2 131; North Monterey County: Jordan Graves 8-17-2 87
RECEIVING — Gilroy: Riley Filice-Hollar 4-57; Jose Salazar 2-40; Patrick Hsu 2-34; North Monterey County: Carlos Anaya 2-18; Josh Garnett 1-35; Jose Garcia 1-0; Adrian Garcia 2-18; Fernando Vasquez 2-16
DEFENSE — Fumble recoveries: Gilroy 1 (Patrick Hsu); North Monterey County 1; Interceptions: Gilroy 2 (Johnny Romero, Matthew Castillo) North Monterey County 2 (Elijah Ramirez)
RECORDS — Gilroy 5-2, 3-0 MBPL; North Monterey County 0-7, 0-3 MBPL
