The Anzar High football team entered the 2015 season with a couple of goals in mind, including finishing games off strong. In last Friday’s 34-22 win over East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy, the Hawks did just that. Anzar (2-2, 0-1 Mission Trail 8-man league) outscored East Palo Alto 14-0 in the fourth quarter to win going away.
“One of our points of emphasis this year was conditioning,” Hawks coach Frank Reyes said. “We were really trying to make sure our players were conditioned well and could hold up in a lot of these games. The conditioning certainly paid off because this game was extremely physical.”
With the team’s roster down to 25 players, Anzar will need to be in tremendous shape as the season hits the midway point with Friday’s 6 p.m. home league game against Woodside Priory. In addition to the players’ conditioning level, Reyes was most impressed with the team’s pass defense.
The Hawks limited East Palo Alto to just 2-of-9 passing. Reyes highlighted the play of defensive backs Rodrigo Amescua, Eddie Mohssin and Alex Farfan for keying on their assignments and playing smart.
“I’d be lying if I wasn’t chomping at the bit to share to you that our pass defense was a thousand times better from earlier in the season,” Reyes said.
Angel Jimenez had another terrific game playing both ways, as he rushed for 88 yards on 12 carries and made the play of the game at linebacker, when he ran down an East Palo Alto player at the Hawks 5-yard line to save a touchdown in the fourth quarter. On the next play, East Palo Alto fumbled the ball, and the Hawks promptly marched down the field for a touchdown to account for the final score.
Had East Palo Alto scored, it most likely would’ve taken the lead on the point-after attempt.
“That was a great hustle play from Angel,” Reyes said. “He was 10 yards behind the East Palo Alto quarterback and managed to trip him up.”
Anzar gave up a touchdown with two seconds left before halftime, something that has demoralized the team in the past. Not this time.
“Before we would have a hard time recovering from something like that,” Reyes said. “But that was not the case in this game—I saw a different mentality on the team. They boys really elevated their game, and that’s something to take pride in.”
Quarterback Marc Gil had a standout game before being knocked out of the contest for precautionary measures, Reyes said. The senior signal-caller threw a 26-yard TD pass to Andrew Huaracha, who also excelled on both sides of the ball as a tight end and middle linebacker.
Other standouts included defensive end Cody Fisher and center Austin Io, who helped pave the way for Anzar running backs to average nearly 6 yards per carry. Reyes has been particularly proud of Gil’s development into a team leader.
“Marc has really stepped up in that leadership role, and that’s part of the reason for our success this year,” Reyes said. “He has emerged offensively and been supportive of everyone on the team.”
Gil completed 4-of-7 passes against East Palo Alto, one of the finer passing games by an Anzar quarterback this season.
“Marc ran the offense exactly how we wanted,” Reyes said. “We were able to sustain drives, run the ball well, make the passes when we needed to and manage field position. If we can do those things, we have a very good chance of being successful.”
