GILROY—Christopher High head coach Tim Pierleoni preaches the importance of being a good person to his players week after week. It won’t be until they’re all grown with families of their own, he said, that he’ll know if they’ve got the message. Now, Pierleoni said it’s time to put his words into action.
Immediately following Friday’s 41-0 loss to Hillsdale, Pierleoni brought his players into the locker room for a closed-door announcement. The coach, who has been with the Cougars since their inception, announced he’d be stepping down for an indefinite amount of time to be with his wife, who is currently battling breast cancer.
“At this point in my life, this is what I’ve got to do. I’ve got to be a better father and a better husband,” Pierleoni said. “That’s the deal. I’ve got to walk the line that I preach.”
Though he loves his team, Pierleoni said he can’t be the coach they need right now—and that, he said, was apparent on the scoreboard tonight.
““I’m not getting it done. I can’t concentrate and I can’t think. This is my passion, but this is about my wife and the woman that I love,” Pierleoni said. “She’s the person I want to spend as much time as I can with and I don’t want to have any regrets.”
The Cougars exited the locker room sniffling and fighting back tears, but also with respect for their coach’s decision. Several players came up to Pierleoni as he stood outside the locker room to hug him and tell him they’d be keeping him and his family in their prayers.
Assistant coach Aaron Bembry will take over as interim head coach in his absence.
Earlier in the night, the team took another blow as senior quarterback Matt Adamkiewicz went down with an upper body injury in the first quarter. His brother Ryan Adamkiewicz took over and gave a valiant effort, but said he was in disbelief taking the field. Ryan went 7 for 9 for 76 yards with two interceptions.
“I wanted to see my brother step up and I was confident in him and confident in this offense,” Matt said. “It’s the little things that just made the difference in this game. I don’t think we played that bad.”
The Cougars and Fighting Knights were scoreless after the first quarter. That didn’t last long as the dangerous Cameron Taylor punched the ball in from the 1-yard-line early in the second quarter to put Hillsdale up 7-0.
On Christopher’s next possession, Ryan found Xander Bowers, who used his 6-5 frame to making a leaping grab for a 33-yard gain. A few plays later, Ryan broke free for a 22-yard keeper. Two Cougar penalties killed the gain and left the team facing a first and 25 situation, which it couldn’t convert.
Hillsdale struck again with 1:10 left in the half as Brett Wetteland found Nate Rosas for a 35-yard score to put their team ahead 14-0 at halftime.
The Cougars were noticeably different after the break. They allowed the Fighting Knights to reach the endzone three times in the third quarter, the first coming on a Wetteland pass to Isaiah Cozzolino. The point after attempt, however, was no good.
Taylor broke free for a 46-yard score with under two minutes left in the third. The Fighting Knights recovered the kick and struck again as Wetteland and Cozzolino paired up for a 31-yard touchdown with 55 seconds left.
Taylor, who had 18 carries for 158 yards, capped off the night with his third touchdown of the game. He did it on a 10-yard carry halfway through the fourth.
“The mood, the tone that our team had was different (after halftime),” Ryan said. “We were all down, we were obviously affected; we lost one of our greatest players.”
Dylan Olivares led Christopher offensively. The junior running back had 120 yards on 20 carries.
“Dylan did an excellent job,” Pierleoni said. “We relied on him a whole game.”
Brendan Lerma led the Cougars on defense with seven tackles in the game. Jared Huddleston also sacked Wetteland and Noah Liberatore recovered a fumble in the third quarter.
The Cougars are taking the night’s events in stride and said now, all they can do is move forward.
“We’re going to work on staying focused and everyone executing their jobs and staying together as a team,” Ryan said. “We’ve got to pick everything up that we’ve been slacking off with.”
The Cougars (1-2) will open league play at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 2 against Palma.
