Hollister Pop Warner spent two days in competition over the
weekend, as the cheerleaders took part in the Peninsula
Invitational on Saturday and the football teams hosted several
opponents Sunday.
Here are some of the results:
Hollister Pop Warner spent two days in competition over the weekend, as the cheerleaders took part in the Peninsula Invitational on Saturday and the football teams hosted several opponents Sunday.
Here are some of the results:
Cheer
With two championships, and a third place trophy, the Hollister Vikings cheer squad continued its eight-year dominance of the Peninsula Pop Warner.
Despite its many national teams, historically Hollister cheer doesn’t do well at the early-season invitational.
In order to win, or place in the top three, a team usually must have completed and perfected their two-and-a-half minute routine – a combination of cheering, acrobatic stunting and dance moves that must be executed in perfect synchronization.
Third-year Junior Pee Wee coach Brandy Solano-Juarez has always favored a go-slow approach, taking the time to have her girls perfect each part of the routine before moving on to the next. As a result, the team’s full routine is not completed until mid-October so her teams have never placed at the invitational.
They didn’t plan on placing this year either – the routine is still a week or more away from completion – but they impressed judges so they were handed the third-place trophy.
The Pee Wees team, coached by ten-year veteran Hilda Cascio, blew away the competition to walk home with the invitational championship.
Hollister’s senior team, the Junior Midgets will compete in a special advanced level this year. Only one other Bay Area team was chosen to compete at that level this year.
Coach Pepper Soto pushes her team to be perfect in all of its performances. Her team had the highest score of any competing team at any level in the invitational last year, and her Junior Midget Vikings repeated that performance this year scoring higher than their Morgan Hill opponents. Because only two teams are competing at the Intermediate level, a trophy will only be awarded in three weeks, when the cheer championships take place.
The Mighty Mites and Tiny Mites also performed Saturday. Although these two teams are not scored, and are not awarded championships, both did quite well compared to others in their age group. The Mighty Mites are coached this year by long-time Baler coach Emily Bettencourt, who is also serving as a choreographer and consultant for the three competitive cheer teams. The Tiny Mites are coached by Miriam Barragan, who also has experience coaching competitive cheer.
Pee Wee
Hollister Vikings 16, Salinas Cardinal 6
By Samantha Zaragoza
A blustery fall day couldn’t slow down the Vikings’ momentum. On the heels of last week’s win, the Vikings were chomping at the bit to meet local rival, Salinas. On the second Viking possession – just minutes into the game – quarterback Hunter Raquet aired a long ball to Andres Soto, who hauled in the pass and ran untouched into the end zone. Soto added the two-point kick to make it an 8-0 game.
Marcus Guevara tackled the Salinas receiver on the ensuing kickoff to pin the Cardinals at their own 17-yard line. On the Cardinals first play, an attempted deep pass was intercepted by Viking Diego Fisher.
The Vikings would be forced to punt the ball though. When Fisher’s punt was blocked by Salinas, the Vikings were forced to make a defensive stance on the Hollister 40-yard line. Outstanding tackles by Tristan Wahl, Guevara and Medina, forced Salinas to punt.
Soto had a remarkable defensive day for the Vikings by leading the team in tackles and recovering a fumble. After Soto’s fumble recovery, Michael Zaragoza stepped through the line to earn four yards, and Ishmael Medina followed up with his own 7-yard run for a first down. Hollister’s offense would move the chains a season-best twelve times in the first half.
Undaunted, Salinas scored with a minute left in the half. With the ball on the 2-yard line with only two seconds left, the Salinas runner crept into the hole t score a touchdown. The point after kick was blocked to give the Vikings a 8-6 lead at the half.
The second half was much more of the same hard-fought play for both teams. Salinas gave up more than 35 yards on penalties in the second half – and the score would reflect that.
The Vikings would move the ball in the second half – thanks to the superb blocking of Aidan Pung. But a Raquet pass was intercepted to give the Cardinals the ball at the 1-yard line.
Wahl tackled the runner just over the end zone for second down, and after two more plays, Salinas was forced to punt out of its end zone.
On Salinas’ next possession, more solid Viking defense pushed the Cardinals further and further from the end zone. Michael Esparza smothered the Salinas runner for a 4-yards loss. Forcing Salinas to turn the ball over again.
Hollister struggled to earn yards on the next drive and were forced to punt once again..
Stuck at the 1-yard line, Salinas was overwhelmed by the Hollister defense and was tackled in the end zone of for a safety – extending the Hollister lead to 10-8. Moments later, Hollister extended its lead on a Soto run down the sideline, making the final score 16-6.
“(The) D-line came up huge – all of them stepped up and blocked and linebackers filled their gaps,” head coach Gino Andrade said. “All year, we’ve been preaching – ‘play four quarters, you win’ – we definitely played all four quarters today!”
Mighty Mite
Salinas Cardinals 18, Hollister Vikings 0
By Noelle Greene
In its last three games, the Hollister Mighty Mites have not let their opponent score in the final quarter – and Sunday’s game was no exception. The team shared the field with the Salinas Cardinals on Sunday, but the Cardinals came away with the win, despite an improved Vikings’ defense and offense. Sam Smallwood, Anthony Sanchez and Andrew Montoya tackled had a great game, but a fumble allowed Salinas to take control and score the first points of the game.
At the start of the second quarter, Anthony Martin made a big tackle assisted by Michael Durden to keep the Cardinals from scoring too quickly. The Salinas quarterback tried a keeper but was met by Joseph Frank.
Despite an improved defensive line, the Vikings gave up a second touchdown to Salinas in the second quarter with 7:11 on the clock. The kick-off was recovered by Isaac Gutierrez at the Vikings’ 40-yard line, and Ivan Mendoza, Montoya, and Sanchez carried the ball along the outside to embark on a long drive.
But Salinas regained possession and used a 25-yard pass play to move into Vikings’ territory. A timely fumble recovery by Ivan Mendoza turned momentum toward the Vikings. Mendoza followed the play with a 25-yard run to set up an 18-yard pass from Montoya to Sky Freer. The play moved the Vikings to the Cardinals’ 20-yard line, but the clock ran out in the half before Hollister could score.
Salinas scored their third and final touchdown on a pass late in the third quarter. The Vikings made big defensive plays to prevent any more scoring as Bobby Viramontes and Joshua Zapien made tackles at the line of scrimmage, Anthony Martin and Zapien sacked the Cardinal quarterback and Gabriel Domingues had an interception.
“We played hard throughout the game, but were unable to execute in order to make it count,” coach Frank Montoya said.
Junior Pee Wee
Salinas Cardinals 34, Hollister Vikings 20
By Tom Vivian
The Junior Pee Wee Vikings got their offense in high gear again this weekend, but unfortunately they met with an even more explosive opponent in Salinas.
Hollister struck first when fullback Jonny Gonzalez exploded through a hole for a long gain, and plunged over the goal line moments later for a 6-0 Hollister lead. But as the second quarter began, Salinas took momentum when it scored on a 32-yard run, and went up by eight points minutes later after its punt returner grabbed a bouncing punt and took it 62 yards to paydirt.
But Hollister fought back quickly as Brody Cascio scored on a 21-yard run and also ran in the extra point to make it a 14-13 score at halftime.
Salinas scored again on another long run early in the second half, but the Vikings retaliated immediately as Brady Miguel raced 70 yards on the kick return and Ernesto Sanchez snuck over for the point after to tie the score at 20-20.
But the Cardinals scored again on a long run to retake the lead, and when the Vikings got the ball back, a costly interception kept the offense from scoring again. Salinas converted that takeaway into an insurance touchdown, and intercepted yet another Viking pass to end any hope of a Hollister comeback. Despite allowing 34 points, the Vikings defensive players did have some great moments as Blaze McShane, Manuel Delatorre, Jordan Plesek & Diego Ramirez made numerous backfield tackles.
Junior Midget
Bay Cities Bulldogs 34, Hollister Vikings 14
By Tom Vivian
The Bay Cities Bulldogs fired up their vertical offense on Saturday in Hollister, scoring early and often to run up a 28-0 lead before the first quarter ended. Most of the Bulldogs scores came on long runs or pass plays as Bay Cities demonstrated superior speed and execution.
Jackson Starke sparked the Vikings by returning a kickoff 60 yards to Bay Cities’ 16-yard line. Quarterback Darin Hopkins completed a pass to Tanner Okerson, who was stopped one yard short of a first down but the Vikings didn’t get on the board until Marcus Galvan ran back a fumble 38 yards to the end zone.
Hopkins completed another pass to Dyllan Grieg for a 12-yard gain and a first down later in the contest, and when Hunter Nye recovered a fumble late in the third quarter, Hopkins set up the Vikings second score with a keeper to the one-yard line. Okerson plunged in form the one, and Hopkins added the two-point conversion to make the final score 34-14.
Defensively, Brandon Watt made several big tackles for Hollister and Evan Weatherly recovered a fumble.
Tiny Mites
Hollister Vikings vs. Andrew Hill Raiders
No Score
By Cassandra Rule
For the third week in a row, the Tiny Mite Vikings fired up their offense as Justin Cortez and Donnie Gutirrez each scored two touchdowns. The defense played well at every position, keeping their opponents in check for most of the game.
Next week
The Vikings go on the road this weekend, with most of the teams visiting Andrew Hill High School in San Jose on Saturday.
