Gavilan football will host Monterey Peninsula College Friday.
MPC is currently 7-0 on the year
GILROY
Monterey Peninsula College will bring a 7-0 record into Gilroy Saturday to play the slumping Gavilan College Rams at 7 p.m., at the Garcia-Elder Sports Complex.
Coach Mike Rasmussen’s Lobos are 2-0 in Coast Conference play after disposing of De Anza 20-9 last weekend. Gavilan is 2-5 overall and 0-2 in the conference, including a 31-24 loss to De Anza.
“We’ll try to knock them off,” Gavilan coach John Lango said of his team’s goal this weekend. “Monterey’s solid in what they do. Their quarterback, Brian Reader, was at Arkansas last year and is a very good player.”
Reader has tossed 13 touchdown passes and 1,538 yards, and played for Palma in high school. The top Lobo runner is Pacific Grove product Ian Hesse, who has rushed for 569 yards and four touchdowns.
“We’re a similar team to Gavilan, in that their defense has played extremely well and we’ve played well on defense,” Rasmussen said. “This will be a typical Coast Conference game. We have a tremendous rivalry. Gavilan has some explosive players on offense.”
Lango noted that with the conference so balanced, even an unbeaten team such as MPC can fall victim to a team at the opposite end of the standings.
“We’ve had a good week of practice,” Lango said. “The players know that Monterey will be a big challenge and they appear to be ready for it.”
