Monterey Peninsula College remained undefeated Saturday when
they defeated the Gavilan College Rams 38-14 in Gilroy
GILROY
Brian Reader threw for three touchdowns and ran for another Saturday to pace unbeaten Monterey Peninsula College past the Gavilan Rams 38-14 at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex in Gilroy.
The loss dropped Gavilan to 0-3 in Coast Conference action, setting up Saturday night’s game against 0-3 Hartnell in Salinas.
“The play-action fakes worked well and the line did a good job keeping them off me,” said Reader, a Palma High grad who spent last fall at Arkansas.
Reader finished with 230 yards on a 10 of 14 night. Monterey Peninsula, 3-0 for the conference and 8-0 overall, netted just 45 yards on the ground under wet playing conditions.
Gavilan put together enough offense to finish with a 20-12 edge in first downs, 300-275 in total offense.
“We gave up too many big plays,” Gavilan coach John Lango said. “The secondary bit on the play-action and they made us pay.”
MPC went right to work by covering 65 yards for a touchdown on the game’s first series. Reader turned a roll-out play-action into a pitch to Jeremy Haynes for 40 yards and a score. Chris Pinto, a busy place-kicker for the Lobos, added the point-after with 12:41 left in the first quarter.
The teams exchanged a total of seven punts before any further scoring. The Lobos covered 31 yards in six plays to go ahead 14-0 when Reader rolled right, bought some time and found tight end Ryan Smith unmarked in the end zone for the 17-yard toss with 10:18 left in the half.
A 52-yard punt return by Lobo Brett Taylor led to a Pinto 31-yard field goal to make it 17-0 with 4:27 left in the half, but Gavilan bounced back with a 14-play drive engineered by Palma High grad Connor Farotte.
The Rams converted one fourth-down play and three third-down plays before Farotte passed six yards to Doug Stewart for a touchdown with seven seconds to play in the half.
Monterey Peninsula scored the only points of the third quarter when Reader, again rolling left, spotted a wide-open Haynes behind the Ram defense for an 82-yard touchdown on the Lobos’ first snap of the half. Pinto’s point-after made it 24-7 with 11:42 left in the third.
Three touchdowns were produced in the final 7:30 of play.
Reader scrambled for a six-yard touchdown to make it 31-7 with 7:30 left. Nick Kalantari then guided a Gavilan touchdown march of 60 yards – the big play a clutch 42-yard catch by Tim Harvey. Matt McCoy, on the way to 76 yards on 12 rushes, sliced off right guard for the two-yard Ram touchdown with 5:05 left.
A Lobo punt pinned the Rams at the Gavilan 1 in the closing three minutes. Gavilan’s punt with 1:18 left was blocked, and Ivo Jimenez carried the football one yard to paydirt to complete the scoring.
Harvey paced the Ram receivers with seven grabs worth 104 yards. Matt Perkins added five receptions.
Farotte, with extended time on his first start, completed 14 of 27 passes for 127 yards. Kalantari finished 6 of 14 for 92 yards.
