The Hollister Midget and Junior Pee defenses came up big during
the first round of the Pop Warner Saturday in Santa Cruz.
Not only did Hollister not allow a point to be scored, the
Cowboys didn’t allow a first down, and the Vikings gave up just
one.
Midget Division.
The Hollister Midget and Junior Pee defenses came up big during the first round of the Pop Warner Saturday in Santa Cruz.
Not only did Hollister not allow a point to be scored, the Cowboys didn’t allow a first down, and the Vikings gave up just one.
Midget Division.
Hollister 27, Santa Cruz 0
The Cowboys won their third win in a row against the Santa Cruz Stingrays. From start to finish, the Hollister defensive line of Jaime Driskill, Anthony Flores, Roman Miranda, David Perez, Frank Cota and George Luna swarmed all over Santa Cruz ballcarriers in the backfield.
Linebackers Abel Jacquez, Miles Sanchez and Matt Hamilton made their share of tackles, and the Stingrays never got the ball off the ground thanks to the efforts of the Cowboys secondary, which includes Michael Decker, Nathan Hopkins and David De la Cruz. The longest Santa Cruz gain on any play was less than three yards.
Runs by Chris Koroluk, Hayden Dean and Ryan Lesondak kept churning out-yardage and first downs for the Hollister offense.
The Cowboys scored early in the second quarter on a 30-yard run by Driskill, and Russell Czernek added the extra point to make it 8-0 Cowboys.
The Cowboys scored again on their next possession.
Anthony Flores broke through the hapless Stingray defense on a 65-yard touchdown gallop. Jacquez passed to Decker for the extra point and a 15-0 lead.
In the third quarter, the speedy Driskill added more points for Hollister after a Santa Cruz punt, taking the ball back 50 yards for a touchdown.
The Cowboys scored an insurance touchdown late in the game when Jacquez outran the Santa Cruz defense 35yards to paydirt.
Jr. Pee Wee Division
Hollister 26, Daily City 0
The Junior Pee Wees Vikings kept Daily City in the backfield most of the time thanks to the efforts of Isaak Ramos, Tyler Pina, Jared Lantis, Justin Raine and Conner Stevens, who shut down the entire line of scrimmage.
The inspired play of the defense got the Vikings back on track after a disappointing loss last week. Hollister shut out its opponents for the eighth time in ten games this season.
Offensively, the Vikings also got their rhythm back as runs by Mark Neal and Adolfo Davila got several first downs to get the ball moving in the right direction.
Stopped on fourth down, the Vikings went in punt formation. On a fake pass, quarterback Tyler Decker pitched to speedster Andre Cornell, who streaked 51 yards for a score and a 6-0 Hollister lead.
After Conner Stevens recovered a fumble, the Vikings began working on their air attack. Adrian Soto lobbed a 20-yard pass to Roman Reyes for a first down.
After Adolfo Davila picked up ten more yards on the ground, Soto, Davila and Cornell executed the reverse perfectly. Cornell netted 27 yards and another six points for Hollister.
After the defense stopped Santa Cruz cold again, the Vikings scored on the halfback option pass when Decker pitched to Adrian Soto, who fired a beautiful bomb to Andre Cornell for a 39-yard scoring play.
Cornell also kicked a two-point conversion, the Vikings first of the year, and they led at halftime 20-0.
The Vikings got an insurance touchdown in the third quarter after a 20-yard gain by Nathan Castro and a 10-yard reverse by Reyes.
The Vikings took advantage by executing the halfback option again. This time Reyes caught it for a 22-yard gain down to the four-yard line.
Two plays later, Mikey Soto crossed the goal line for the game’s final score. Castro Neal and Davila kept the ball moving forward to run out the clock.
Jr. Midget Division
Redwood City 23, Hollister 16
The Junior Midget Vikings were the only team to lose on Saturday, coming up on the short end of a 23-16 score in a see-saw game.
The Vikings got on the scoreboard first early in the second period. After great blocking by the offensive line, especially Devin Quintana, and great runs by Austin Schmidt, Bobby Dennehy and Al Reyes got them close, Herman Valderrama scored on a short run. Al Reyes added a two-point kick to put the Vikings up 8-0.
Redwood City mounted two long drives after that, the first of which was stopped by Hollister, but the second resulted in a touchdown just before the half and an 8-8 halftime tie.
Hollister got the upper hand again in the third quarter, blocking a punt and converting it into a touchdown by Austin Schmidt
Another two-pointer by Reyes put the Vikings up 16-8. The Vikings has a promising drive at the beginning of the fourth quarter stopped by the 49ers. The 49ers put together their own drive with to tie the score with 1:50 remaining.
Twenty seconds later, Redwood City picked off Hollister’s first play.
The 49ers struck gold on a touchdown pass two plays later to win the game and put an end to a great season for the Junior Midget Vikings.
Mitey Mite Division
The Mitey Mite Vikings also played their final contest of the season Saturday night in Hollister, hosting East Bay in an invitational game.
The players ended their season on a high note and inspired a great deal of hope for next year’s Junior Pee Wee team.
Danny Buzzetta and Taylor Dukes had some great runs for the Vikings, each reaching the end zone.
Buzzetta also had a fumble recovery, and Marcus Sabatte had two exciting interceptions, one of which he returned 20 yards. John Hartshorn recovered one fumble and one onside kick.
The three Hollister teams that remain in the playoffs will be at home at Andy Hardin Field on Saturday for the last time.
The Junior Pee Wees will take on Cambrian Valley at 11 a.m., the Pee Wees will play West Bay at 1 p.m., and the Midgets will host the nightcap against Los Gatos, beginning at 5 p.m.
There is an $8 admission charge for the playoff games. The winners of these contest will play at Fremont High in Sunnyvale for the Peninsula title the following weekend.
