Hollister’s Pee Wee finished a perfect season on Sunday in San
Bruno, shutting out the West Bay Ram team 28-0 to finish undefeated
and untied.
Only one team, the Los Gatos Panthers, was able to score on the
Hollister squad this season. So it was appropriate that the defense
scored the first points of the contest Sunday.
Kyle Vallejo picked up a West Bay fumble and ran it back 24
yards for a touchdown.
Hollister’s Pee Wee finished a perfect season on Sunday in San Bruno, shutting out the West Bay Ram team 28-0 to finish undefeated and untied.
Only one team, the Los Gatos Panthers, was able to score on the Hollister squad this season. So it was appropriate that the defense scored the first points of the contest Sunday.
Kyle Vallejo picked up a West Bay fumble and ran it back 24 yards for a touchdown.
The defense got two more points a few minutes later when Michael Murphy tackled a Ram ballcarrier in the end zone for a safety. After a short punt, Isaiah Hernandez made several good runs to set up a 13-yard touchdown scamper by Holden Renz.
Michael Murphy added the extra point to give the Vikings a 16-0 lead.
Hollister began the third quarter with an onside kick that was recovered by the Vikings Ryan Shorey. The Vikings mounted another drive, which ended in a 2-yard run by Hernandez for six points as the fourth quarter began.
With the game in hand, the attention shifted to preserving the shutout.
Murphy and Vallejo made a contribution to that cause by sacking the West Bay quarterback twice in succession.
On the next play, Ryan Shorey picked off a pass and , returned it 40 yards for the score. As he has so often this year late in ball games, Evan McFadden stepped up to make the game-ending plays, breaking up a pass with four seconds left. He then intercepted the Rams last-ditch bomb and returned it about 40 yards.
The Pee Wees earned a bye for the first round of the playoffs and will not play until Nov. 8 in Hollister.
Jr. Pee Wee Division
Rams 26, Vikings 0
In was a battle of two undefeated teams, the West Bay Rams shut out the Hollister team that had goose-egged seven of its eight opponents. With the win, West Bay captured the division title and claimed a first-round bye in the playoffs.
The Rams scored on the game’s first play from scrimmage on a 48-yard sweep by the quarterback.
However, the Vikings defense got the upper hand for a while afterwards as they shut down the Rams for the rest of the half. Ricky Rodriguez and Isaak Ramos were particularly effective at plugging up holes and making tackles in the backfield.
The Vikings, who were missing several key offensive players, had difficulty moving the ball against a tenacious Ram defense. They managed a couple of first downs on good runs by Mark Neal Jr.
Tyler Decker completed several passes to Ricky Rodriguez and Roman Reyes, and Adolfo Davila Jr. had a couple good runs, but the Rams were able to stop the Vikings drives.
The Rams got a touchdown drive themselves in the third quarter, and capitalized on Hollister miscues to add two more scores in the fourth, wrapping up a convincing 26-0 win.
Both teams now move into the post season – the Rams seated first and Hollister second. Assuming that both teams can move through the playoffs, defeating previously-vanquished opponents, they would meet again on Nov. 16 for the league championship.
Head coach Julian Gaytan and his staff now will try to get the offensive players back and healthy for the playoffs, beginning next Sunday, and to find a way to beat the seemingly unstoppable West Bay Rams should the anticipated rematch occur.
Jr. Midget Division
Rams 20, Vikings 0
The Junior Midgets dropped their second game in a row as the undefeated Rams cruised to a 20-0 win. Hollister’s defense played well and dominated the game early as Alfonso Reyes and Herman Valderrama each recovered fumbles in the first quarter. Devin Quintana was also strong out the gate, registering several sacks.
But the Rams scored on special teams on the last play of the first quarter when their punt returner picked up a punt that was about to roll dead and ran laterally across the field. He found a hole that he ran through for six points.
The Rams scored again on the last play of the half, taking advantage of a controversial fourth-down pass interference penalty to get close to the goal line and sweeping in on another fourth-down play after it looked like the Vikings defense had stopped them again.
In the third quarter, the Vikings got a break when Ryan Wiltse recovered a fumble deep in Ram territory, but the overbearing Ram defense again extinguished the threat, sacking quarterback David Demateo twice to get the ball back.
Wiltse and Quintana plugged up many running holes, and Robby Sanchez made a big sack. But West Bay managed an insurance score on a big play late in the third quarter, putting the game out of reach and assuring the Junior Midget Rams an undefeated regular season.
Midget Division
Cowboys 12, Rams 6
In the day’s most exciting contest, the Cowboys wrapped up a big win on the last play of the game as the dusk settled over San Bruno on Sunday night.
West Bay got on the board first when the Cowboys muffed a punt deep in their own territory. The Rams recovered, scoring on a two-yard pass on the next play to go up 6-0.
When the Cowboys got the ball back, they set the pace for the rest of the game by establishing a ferocious running attack. With Jaime Driskill, Anthony Flores and Abel Jacquez sharing the load, the Cowboys pushed the ball up the middle on virtually every down, going the length of the field and scoring on Driskill’s 22 yard burst to even the game.
After that, the game became a battle between two good defenses. Hollister got the upper hand in the second quarter when defensive end Roman Miranda, coming off a preseason shoulder injury, picked off a slant pass and returned it to the Rams 22.
The Cowboys capitalized on the very next play as Driskill broke through the Rams line for another touchdown score.
Both defenses stepped up in the second half, and neither team could get a score. The first time the Rams started driving, Jacquez intercepted a pass and returned it 25 yards. Finally, as the clock began to tick off the final minutes of the game, the Rams started a drive that the Cowboys seemingly could not stop.
The Rams got a first-and-goal on the Cowboy five with just under a minute remaining and had four plays to get into the end zone.
The first three plays netted only three yards and put them at the 2-yard line with just four seconds left. The Rams tried a leftside sweep, but the West Bay runner was met by a band of Cowboys that included Matt Hamilton, Nathan Hopkins, Driskill, Miranda and Flores. They pulled him down a foot short of the goal as time expired, preserving the Cowboys win.
The Cowboys finished their season at 4-4 and have earned a playoff berth as the fifth seed.
Mighty Mite Division
The Mighty Mite Vikings continued to impress on both offense and defense as they had their way with their opponents on Sunday morning.
John Hartshorn recovered a kickoff on the game’s first play like he has been doing all season long.
The Mitey Mites do not score points, but reached the end zone six times in this particular contest as all of their backs had impressive runs. Long scampers by Cody Cameron and David Williams set up the first end zone plunge by Taylor Dukes.
Eddie Munoz ran 17 yards a few minutes later.
Ron Fhurong recovered a fumble after the kickoff, and then it was Danny Buzzetta’s turn to run to paydirt as two successive runs got him to the end zone. The ensuing kickoff was also fumbled by the Rams and recovered by Austin Wahl.
The Vikings began the second half just as they had ended the first, as Cody Cameron returned the kickoff 50 yards.
That set up an 8-yard run to the end zone by Mark Ponte.
Marcus Sabatte made one of the game’s best defensive plays, stripping the ball from a West Bay runner and returning it all the way 30 yards.
Williams and Darin Hopkins also made big defensive contributions, stopping several West Bay drives with good tackles.
The Mitey Mites conclude their season on Saturday night at Andy Hardin Stadium with an invitational game against East Bay.
Three Hollister teams will have post-season playoffs starting this weekend.
