Oakland defeats three other Hollister football teams
HOLLISTER
At 7 p.m. on Saturday night, having suffered through four consecutive losing efforts, Hollister Pop Warner fans were facing the prospect of a sweep by an opponent, something that they had not seen in six years. By 8:30 p.m., Hollister fans were jubilant at the play of their Junior Midget team, which used their stifling defense to shut out their opponent 24-0 win over a highly touted East Bay team and bring their record to 3-1 in league play, 4-1 overall.
“The kids played out of their minds tonight,” said defensive coordinator Mike Hicks, who lost his voice during the game.
East Bay got the ball deep in their territory to start the game thanks to a booming kickoff by Angel Pasillas that sailed over the heads of East Bay’s kick return men, and Hollister’s defense forced a quick punt.
The Viking offense began their first drive of the night with a three-yard run off-tackle by Pasillas. On third-and-seven, quarterback Austin Wahl hit halfback Cody Cameron out in the right flat for a 14-yard gain. Pasillas followed with a 17-yard run. After fullback Zack Hicks took the ball five yards down to the 13-yard line, Wahl found his tight end Damon Perez in the corner of the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown pass. Pasillas converted the point-after attempt to put the Vikings up 8-0.
Another strong kickoff by Pasillas gave East Bay poor starting field position, and the defense was effective against the run, forcing a punt. However, the punt was touched by the Vikings and East Bay recovered at midfield. Their drive did not last long, and their fourth down pass play was picked off by the safety Wahl for his first interception of the night.
The Viking offense controlled the line of scrimmage, and a fourth down pass play from Wahl to Cameron kept the drive alive. Runs by Hicks for nine yards and wingback Pasillas for 10 yards put the Vikings on the 11-yard line. However, a muffed handoff turned the ball over to East Bay and led to their longest drive of the game, where they went down to the Hollister 40-yard line. The drive stalled, and on fourth-and-14, Wahl intercepted his second pass of the night.
At the start of the second half, the Vikings received the kickoff but were unable to move the ball, and Pasillas punted the ball for the first time that night, booting a 39-yard punt to the 11-yard line. After giving up a first down, Hollister forced a punt, which Pasillas returned 16 yards to the 27-yard line. On second-and-eight, Wahl fired the ball to Pasillas in the middle of the field for a 25-yard touchdown pass. John Canes kicked the point-after to put the Vikings up 16-0.
“Our kicking game was great,” said assistant coach Dave Padilla, who noted not just Pasillas’ long kick-offs and punts, but also the point-after conversions by both Pasillas and Canes.
A long kick-off return by East Bay was thwarted by Pasillas, who had the hit of the night when he leveled the East Bay returner at midfield. Again, the Viking defense came up big and East Bay went three-and-out and punted. This time Hicks fielded the punt and, running to his right, got behind a wall of blockers to go 72 yards for a touchdown.
“We put that punt return in a couple of weeks ago and we’ve been working hard on it,” said offensive coordinator Rick Dukes. “It was good to see it executed so perfectly tonight.”
Pasillas kicked his second point-after of the night, bringing the score to 24-0 with 1:19 left in the third quarter.
East Bay tried in the fourth quarter to mount a comeback, but the Viking defense would not give in. In a last-ditch effort, Damien Botelho intercepted a pass to end East Bay’s hopes of a scoring drive.
The entire Viking defense played well, dominating the East Bay offensive line and controlling the perimeter. This allowed middle linebacker Damon Perez to run freely without being blocked so he could harass the East Bay ball carriers all night.
“Damon played awesome tonight,” Coach Hicks said.
“Going into the game, we wanted to establish the run in order to set up our play-action game. I thought the kids executed really well tonight, and we’re getting better every week,” Coach Dukes said. “We know that in Division I we are going to be facing some tough teams with athletes who are bigger, stronger, faster than us. We try to play tough, physical football and keep the mistakes to a minimum. We had a couple of blown opportunities tonight, but we’ll work on those and be ready for our next game. That’s what youth football is all about.”
“We played a complete football game – offense, defense, special teams,” added head coach Eddie Tobia. “We were well-prepared for this game. Now we’ve got to get back to work and get ready for Sunnyvale next week.”
Pee Wee
East Bay Wolfpack 32
Hollister Vikings 0
The Pee Wees got their most severe test of the young season on Saturday, battling the East Bay Wolfpack in a match-up of undefeated teams. After a promising start, however, East Bay came away with the 32-0 victory to bring Hollister’s season record to 3-1.
The Vikings got off to their typical fast start, with quarterback Tyler Fhurong hitting Chris Cook on a 14-yard pass on first down. After two runs from Cook, Fhurong hit him on another pass, a 21-yarder, to bring the ball into the red zone.
Fullback Dylan Yamasaki gained a yard on first down and after an incompletion, Fhurong connected with Cody Freitas on a four-yard strike to bring up fourth down on the 14. The drive stalled there, however, as East Bay hit Fhurong as he was attempting to pass and there was a turnover on downs.
The first time that the Wolfpack touched the ball, their running back scampered 86 yards for a touchdown to put the visitors up 6-0.
On the Vikings’ next possession, Greg Steinbeck and Brandon Olivares had carries before a bad snap on third down, forcing Hollister to punt. East Bay then had a 30-yard touchdown run and the one-point conversion to go up 13-0 with three minutes left in the quarter.
Oliveras had six yards on two carries in Hollister’s next possession, and Fhurong hit Mavrick Enz on a 12-yard pass to earn a first down, but East Bay intercepted the next pass to regain possession.
Hollister’s Freitas, Fhurong, Tyler Biersdorff, Kenny Lee, Josh George and Phillip Castro had tackles on the next series, but after the Vikings’ line had a third down goal-line stand, East Bay’s quarterback ran the ball in from the 1 on fourth down to put the Wolfpack up 20-0 with just under seven minutes left in the half.
The Vikings’ tough luck continued on the next drive as East Bay returned an interception for a touchdown to go up 26-0. Hollister’s Lee broke through the line to block the extra point attempt, his second blocked kick of the game.
After Hollister’s final drive of the half stalled on its 48-yard line, Brian Noble and Yamasaki had tackles for the Vikings before East Bay called a double-reverse and scored on a 25-yard touchdown run to run the score to 32-0 at the half.
In the second half, the Vikings continued to get tackles from a host of defenders, including Jon Sanchez, Russell Enz, Jordan Goldstein, Daniel Smith and Enrique Rodriguez, Todd Alnas and Evan Weatherly to hold East Bay scoreless, but the Wolfpack defense shut Hollister down as well to preserve their shutout.
Junior Pee Wee
East Bay Wolverines 28
Hollister Vikings 0
The undefeated East Bay Wolverines demonstrated why they are the team to beat in their division, shutting down the Hollister offense while showing a great deal of their own offensive fire power.
By the end of the first quarter, the Wolverines had amassed a 22-point lead and never looked back. Big tackles by Andrew Huaracha, Tommy Ford, Marcos Flores and Matthew Rabago kept the game from getting any further out of hand, and Rabago also recovered a fumble. Offensively, Austin Cascio had a 30-yard kick return and two long runs, and RJ Clark completed several passes to Shraee Harrison
Mitey Mite Purple
East Bay War Hawks 12
Hollister Vikings 6
In the closest contest of the four losses on Saturday, the powerful East Bay War Hawks barely edged the Hollister Vikings thanks to inspired play by the defense.
The War Hawks, who had scored 30 points on Santa Clara just a couple weeks earlier, had their hands full all day as Tristan Wahl and Hunter Nye were frequent visitors in the East Bay backfield, forcing losses on play after play. East Bay got a breakaway run for an early score, but after that the Viking defense shut them down for three quarters. Nico Lopez broke up a pass play to end one East Bay threat and Nathan Fhurong began wreaking havoc on the War Hawks end-run strategy with big open field tackles on the outside. Finally they started forcing East Bay turnovers, with Nye recovering a fumble.
The score remained 6-0 at the half, but Hollister got the momentum in the third quarter with interceptions on two consecutive War Hawk series, one by Jeremy Wilson and the second by Andres Soto. Nevertheless, the Vikings could not move the ball either against a bulwark defense that had only allowed one score all year. In the fourth quarter, the Vikings got their fourth turnover when Nye stripped the ball from an East Bay runner and pounced on it. The Viking offense suddenly sprung to life with several good outside runs by Nathan Fhurong, giving the Vikings a first-and-goal. Nye plunged over from the 2 and the game was tied. But it only stayed that way for one play as the War Hawk quarterback broke a long run on East Bay’s next play from scrimmage to make the final score 12-6.
Mitey Mite Gold
Oak Grove Rampage 24
Hollister Vikings 6
Great defensive play by the Vikings held off the Rampage for the first half, as Brandon Olivares recovered both a muffed punt and a fumble, and also broke up a pass play. Oak Grove scored first on a 78-yard run, and the ensuing kickoff was returned by Jacob Ryder to the Hollister 36. But the Vikings lost the opportunity with a fumble on the next play, the first of several that Hollister would commit during the game.
The Rampage capitalized on the second fumble to score again and go up 12-0, but Ryder returned the kickoff 70 yards for a touchdown to cut the gap to 12-6.
The Vikings defense stiffened to throw the Rampage in reverse as Efrain Amezcua made an open field tackle to force a loss on a screen pass, and Olivares and Michael Zaragoza followed with backfield tackles on the next two plays. But on fourth-and-long, the Rampage broke yet another long run to go up 18-6 at halftime.
When Oak Grove got the ball back to start the second half, the Viking defense put up a wall as Zachery Serrano, Jordan Finister and Tanner Wiggins made big plays. But the Vikings could not move either, and the Rampage got their final touchdown on a pass play after the Vikings had shut down the run. Hollister’s defense was spectacular for the last quarter and a half, as Travis Roy had several big tackles and Wiggins intercepted a pass. But the Rampage defense was equally effective, keeping Hollister out of the end zone for a 24-6 win.
Tiny Mites
The Tiny Mites played the East Bay Wanderers on Saturday. Anthony Sanchez and Isaias Rivera made many big tackles as well as Ernesto Sanchez and Nathan Parra. Javier Valdez made a big tackle on a long Wanderer run, and Matthew Hernandez made a nice run for a first down.
The Hollister Vikings travel to Sunnyvale this Saturday, except for the Mitey Mite Gold team, which will travel to Salinas. Hollister returns home the following Saturday, October 11, to take on Redwood City teams.
