Christopher will take the field tonight for the final time in 2015. Senior night, normally bittersweet, will just be bitter as the team must take the field less than a week after the passing of Jennifer Pierleoni.
Jennifer, the wife of head coach Tim Pierleoni, lost her battle with breast cancer on Sunday, leaving behind her husband and three children.
Tim had taken an indefinite leave of absence in September to be with his ailing wife.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with them this week,” said assistant coach Aaron Bembry, who has taken over for Tim during this time.
He added there will be heavy hearts on the team as they get ready for Everett Alverez in the last home game of the season.
And Bembry is working to make sure the players keep focused as the Cougars go forward and said his boys will continue to fight.
“Our kids are resilient. They’ve been getting after it week in and week out,” Bembry said. “I expect to see the same thing out of them this week.”
The Cougars are coming off a tough 50-14 loss to Monte Vista Christian from Oct. 30.
Bembry said the boys were in the game as late as the third quarter when mistakes caught up with the Cougars.
Christopher came out of halftime and scored right away on a run by Victor Guerrero to cut the Mustangs’ lead down to 21-14.
“We ran the ball well, very well coming out into the third quarter,” Bembry said.
But then MVC capitalized on turnovers by Christopher and outscored the Cougars 29-0 the rest of the way.
Christopher had gone down 14-0 early in the game, before answering with a touchdown on a pass from Matt Adamkiewicz.
The Cougars will have a chance this week to get back in the win column, facing an Alvarez team that is struggling with a 3-5 overall record and a 1-3 Gabilan Division mark.
But Bembry said he can’t count of this being an easy win as Alvarez is looking at Christopher’s 0-4 league mark in the same way.
“They are having a down year, but they’re looking across at us and saying, ‘we have a shot this week. These guys are not that good based on their record,’” Bembry said.
He said CHS will have to limit the turnovers and Alvarez’ quarterback and runningback combo.
