The Coyote Creek Wildcats officially welcomed the Hollister
Vikings back to Division I
— Pop Warner’s highest level of competition — on Saturday with
four decisive victories over the Vikings.
HOLLISTER
The Coyote Creek Wildcats officially welcomed the Hollister Vikings back to Division I — Pop Warner’s highest level of competition — on Saturday with four decisive victories over the Vikings.
The mighty mites fell 36-12, the junior pee wees lost 25-6, the pee wees lost 25-0, and the junior midgets fell 33-0. The tiny mites, meanwhile, scrimmaged the Coyote Creek Wildcats on Saturday morning.
The Vikings return home this weekend for their first-ever matchups against the Berkeley Junior Bears, a Division I powerhouse whose pee wees were national semifinalists last year.
Hollister’s success in recent years has put it at Pop Warner’s highest level of competition, a designation often reserved for big-city organizations with multiple teams on the most competitive levels.
Some coaches, fans and parents have expressed concern that it will be difficult for Hollister to compete with teams from San Jose, Santa Clara and Oakland. But fans don’t have to look too far back for Hollister’s most recent Division I success, as two Hollister teams made it all the way to the league championship game two years ago in 2008, when the league last classified Hollister Pop Warner as Division I.
Matchups with Berkeley begin at 9:45 a.m. at Andy Hardin Stadium on Saturday.
A rundown on all of last Saturday’s games at Yerba Buena High School:
Mighty Mite
Coyote Creek Wildcats 36, Hollister Vikings 12
The mighty mites played their first official game of the season this past Saturday against the Coyote Creek Wildcats, who prevailed over Hollister 36-12 despite some great moments for the Vikings.
The Wildcats broke on top early with three long touchdown runs in the first quarter to take an 18-0 lead. The Vikings turned the momentum around in the second quarter on a fumble recovery by Caden Bolding, which seemed to lift the team’s sprits, and they responded with their first sustained drive of the season.
Brady Miguel ran the ball for 45 yards, followed by several hard runs by Ernesto Sanchez to move the ball to the 3-yard line. After the Wildcats stopped two successive plays, the Vikings finally crossed the goal line on a great effort by Sanchez and the offensive blockers. It was the team’s first touchdown of the season.
Coming out for the second half trailing 24-6, Hollister scored again when Miguel recovered a fumble and scored on a run a few plays later to make it 24-12.
The defense also stepped up in the third quarter as Eric Green made a big backfield tackle, and then another stop on fourth down to get the ball back for the Vikings. Isaias Rivera also contributed a quarterback sack.
But the Wildcats scored twice in the fourth quarter to put the game out of reach.
By Kimberly Liston
Junior Pee Wee
Coyote Creek Wildcats 25, Hollister Vikings 6
The Wildcats defense shut down Hollister for the last three quarters of the game to earn their first win of the season and hand Hollister its first loss.
The matchup began with good defensive plays by Dimarco DelCurto and Peter Felice to slow the Wildcats, but Coyote Creek scored on their first drive with a quarterback keeper to the outside.
The ensuing kickoff was returned by Andres Soto past midfield after he received a great block from Blaze McShane to spring him loose. Quarterback Brad Sparrer connected with Felice on a pass completion, and Soto took the handoff on the next play, dodging Wildcat tacklers to run 26 yards for a Hollister touchdown. The point-after was stopped and the score, only minutes into the first quarter, was Coyote Creek 7, Hollister 6.
The Wildcat quarterback ran again at the start of the second quarter and followed up with a pass in the end zone that Hollister was not expecting to score their second touchdown. The score going into halftime was Coyote Creek 13, Hollister 6.
The start of the second half began with big defensive plays by the Vikings as Cade Neece, Michael Esparza and Ishmael Medina tackling the Wildcat runners to force a turnover on downs. But Coyote Creek scored on its next possession after a few big runs to the outside and a quarterback keeper brought them within scoring distance, and the Cats scored on a short run to the outside. Hollister’s defensive line thwarted the point-after attempt, making the score 19-6 Coyote Creek. The Wildcats scored their final points by running back a recovered fumble.
One bright spot for the Vikings on this afternoon was the play of the entire offensive and defensive lines. Javier Valdez, Sean Nelson, Medina, Matthew Delatorre and Kane De Alba plugged the middle on defense, allowing the Wildcats to gain almost no yardage on inside runs.
On offense, they shielded the Wildcat line from touching quarterback Sparrer. Linebackers Marcus Guevara, Michael Zaragoza and Jonny Gonzalez chased the Wildcat runners all game, and forced two turnovers to help keep the score close for most of the contest.
The Vikings coaches were especially proud of the fact that their team played a very disciplined game and only incurred one penalty throughout the contest.
By Samantha Zaragoza
Pee Wee
Coyote Creek Wildcats 25, Hollister Vikings 0
It was a tale of two halves on Saturday as the pee wee team opened their regular season against the Coyote Creek Wildcats.
The first half was a defensive battle, with both teams struggling to put together drives as the defenses were stalwart and gave up little. However, the key to the game was turnovers — Hollister made them in the second half, and Coyote Creek capitalized on them.
“We played very hard the first half,” line coach Scott Reynolds said. “It was our game to lose in the second half. Morale dropped as we created our own mistakes.”
In the first half, the Viking defense was strong everywhere, with big hits being made by David San Miguel, Dylan Olivares, Shraee Harrison, Dante Tomasini and Tristan Wahl. Daniel Hopkins made a big play at safety, and Jacob Zamora made the first of two sacks.
The game was scoreless at the start of second half. A fumble during Hollister’s first possession was recovered by Coyote Creek, and the very next play they ran 34 yards down the right sideline for the first score of the game.
The Vikings responded with a nice 15-yard return by Josh Nehme, but fumbled again after a nice run on first down. It was dejà vu all over again, with the Wildcats scoring on a 59-yard run down the sideline.
Hollister continued to fight, putting together their longest drive of the game after a big 24-yard return by Xavier Alvarez. Nehme, Harrison and Nick Trimble all carried the ball as the Vikings drove down the field, but wound up short on fourth-and-three and turned the ball over to the Wildcats on downs. Olivares and San Miguel both made big plays for the Viking defense, only to see the Wildcats score again on a halfback-pass play.
The Viking offense was forced to go to the air, resulting in one of the most exciting plays of the game — a 43-yard pass play from Hopkins to Alvarez.
“Alvarez had a great game for us,” Reynolds said. “And [Antonio] Caro got a big stop in the backfield.”
However, the Vikings couldn’t overcome all of their mistakes in the second half, and on such a hot day, the defense couldn’t help but get fatigued.
By Christine Wahl-Dukes
Junior Midget
Coyote Creek Wildcats 33, Hollister Vikings 0
Coyote Creek scored on a 55-yard run on the first play from scrimmage to go up 6-0. The Vikings defense held for the rest of the first quarter as good tackles by Dominic Barrios, Matthew Rabago, Joe Coffelt, Colby Noble and Moses Solorio kept the Wildcats from extending their lead.
But the levee burst in the second quarter when Hollister gave the Wildcats a short field, and Coyote Creek scored to make it 14-0. They were back in the end zone minutes later on an interception return and the rout was on.
By Tom Vivian
Tiny Mites
Hollister Vikings vs. Coyote Creek Wildcats
The tiny mite Vikings scrimmaged against Coyote Creek on Saturday morning.
The Vikings offense had a hard time moving the ball against an incredibly effective Wildcat defense, but Hollister came up with some great defensive plays of their own.
Early in the game, Chris Soto and Jake Santos collaborated to stop a breakaway Wildcat run down the right sideline. Linebackers Justin Cortez, Rudy Morales and Braydon Etheridge made big tackles behind the line of scrimmage during the contest. Jayden Romero made a good tackle to stop a run up the middle, and Soto made one more saving tackle on a breakaway run late in the contest.
By Tom Vivian
