The Anzar High football team has already made incremental improvements from a year ago.
A home win over Mission Trail 8-man league power Trinity Christian-Monterey on Thursday in the season-finale for both teams would put an exclamation point on the best season in the school’s brief football history.
Thursday’s 7 p.m. contest promises to be a potential season-changer for the Hawks (3-5 overall, 3-4 league), who have a chance to be the only team in the league to deal the first-place Warriors (8-1, 6-0) a league loss.
“We’re going to be having fireworks at halftime, and hopefully on the field we’ll have fireworks of our own,” Anzar coach Luis Espinoza said. “I feel pretty good about this season, but we want to come out of this game (win or lose) having felt we played well. If we can get to that place, then I’ll be a happy coach.”
Espinoza said Trinity Christian probably has the best line play in the league, with plenty of speed at almost every position and two dynamic running backs. The Warriors are prohibitive favorites over the Hawks, who have already lost to the second, third and fourth-place teams in the league—Stuart Hall, Pinewood and Woodside Priory—while Trinity Christian beat those same three teams by a combined 72 points.
However, Espinoza said he’s seen some potential areas his team can exploit, and that it’ll be up to his trio of linebackers—Angel Jimenez, Andrew Huaracha and Izaac Ornelas—to shoulder the responsibility of containing the Warriors’ potent run game.
“If we can get past their line, I think we’ll be OK,” Espinoza said. “I think we match up pretty well with our front three and four against theirs.”
Anzar certainly was the superior team in last week’s 48-32 win over Crystal Springs Uplands-Hillsborough, though at times it didn’t look like it. The Hawks went into halftime in a 12-12 tie before scoring on their first two possessions of the second half to take control.
Still, they needed a 40-yard interception return for a touchdown from Huaracha on the game’s final play to seal the outcome. Angel Jimenez and Marcos Galvan led an Anzar ground game that produced 250 yards rushing, Espinoza said.
Entering the game, Espinoza knew his team had the superior talent. But he had to go off on his players at halftime, and it worked.
“I knew we were the better team, so to come into the half tied made it pretty nerve-wracking,” Espinoza said. “I kind of laid into the boys and they responded.”
The Hawks scored on their first two series coming out of halftime, as Dave Conrath hooked up with Victor Flores for a 15-yard TD and Ammar Mohsin scoring on a 15-yard run.
