Rain, tie dampen spirits of Firebirds, Pioneers

By DICK SPARRER

There were only two things that could have dampened the spirits of the Cupertino and Fremont football teams when they played for a share of the championship in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League last Saturday night ... a November rainfall and a tie.

Unfortunately for the Pioneers and Firebirds, they experienced both.

The first rain of the fall season soaked Diesner Field to create sloppy conditions and an equally sloppy game, and the two squads struggled to a 6-6 tie.

The former led directly to the latter, and it meant that neither team would share the division championship with Mountain View.

Going into the game, the Spartans had only one hope--a Cupertino-Fremont tie. A loss to Homestead a week earlier left Mountain View facing the inevitable ... a tie for first place. After leading the pack for most of the season, the Spartans were stung with a loss to the Mustangs, pushing them into a three-way tie for first place with Cupertino and Fremont.

Mountain View needed a win on Friday and got it with a 33-13 victory over Monta Vista. Then the Spartans would just have to sit back to see which team they shared the title with, the Pioneers or Firebirds. The winner of that Saturday night game would finish in a tie for the championship ... unless, of course, there was no winner.

And that's how it turned out. Cupertino scored on the last play of the third quarter to take a 6-0 lead, then Fremont tied it with a TD in the fourth. The game ended in a 6-6 draw, and the championship went to Mountain View.

Cupertino ended up winning the tiebreaker, but that was only to break the second-place tie between the two clubs on the field that night.

Mountain View clinched the title and a berth in the Central Coast Section playoffs with a 5-1 El Camino record. The Spartans take an 8-2 season record into the playoffs that begin this weekend.

Cupertino and Fremont ended up sharing second in the division with matching 4-1-1 records, though the Pioneers are officially the second-place club by virtue of their tiebreaker win over the Firebirds on Saturday. Homestead ended up a close third at 4-2.

No Title Tie

Fremont fumbled seven times in the game, losing four of them, and Cupertino eventually took advantage of one of the Firebird bobbles.

A fumbled snap squirted free in the Fremont backfield, and Andrew Reese pounced on it for the Pioneers at their own 49.

A 9-yard run by Matt Leavenworth set up a 38-yard touchdown run by David Poole.

It started off as just a simple off tackle play, and Poole appeared to be stopped after just a short gain. But big No. 5 broke free from the pack of Fremont tacklers and raced up the right sideline for the score.

The snap got away on the extra point attempt, but Cupertino had taken a 6-0 lead on the last play of the third quarter. And the way the night was going, it seemed that might be enough for a Cupertino victory.

But Fremont battled back to score a game-tying touchdown late in the fourth quarter. A low extra point attempt was blocked by Cupertino.

Cupertino couldn't move after the kick off and had to punt back to Fremont with 1:06 left in the game. All the Firebirds could muster, though, was a field goal try. And another low kick was blocked by 'Tino.

Pioneers win tiebreaker

In order to break the second-place tie, the clubs went to the league tiebreaker--each team running four plays from the 10-yard-line.

On Cupertino's fourth play, Gabe Zeballos came on to drill a 22-yard field goal to give the Pioneers a 3-0 edge with Fremont taking over on offense.

But the Firebirds were going nowhere. Poole dropped Johnson after just a 1-yard gain on Fremont's first play, then Ben Reynolds sacked Durgin for a 7-yard loss. A third down pass fell incomplete before Poole sacked Durgin on the final play to clinch a tiebreaker win for the Pioneers.

Poole, Leavenworth star

Poole and Leavenworth led the Cupertino offensive attack and were also among the defensive leaders for the Pioneers.

Poole led the ground show with 65 yards on 10 carries and Leavenworth was close behind with 47 yards on eight tries.

Cupertino finished with just 129 yards of total offense, though. Seven quarterback sacks contributed the low yardage total for the Pioneers. Robert McCoy, who was dropped for the seven sacks, managed to hook up on 4 of 7 passes for 44 yards, including a 26-yarder to Jared Schablaske. Kayn Ramirez-Baker pulled in two tosses for 10 yards and Jeremy Chatman had a catch for eight yards.

Scott Mueller was the top tackler for the Pioneers with seven stops. Poole had a sack among his six tackles and Leavenworth was in on five tackles.

Reynolds and Chatman were in on four tackles apiece for Cupertino. Reynolds had two sacks and recovered a Fremont fumble. Schablaske finished with three tackles and Reese had two tackles to go with two fumble recoveries.

Ramirez-Baker also covered a Fremont fumble and Zeballos had a quarterback sack. Matt Putnam, Karim Khalil, Thomas Hammond and Kyle Haberman were also in on tackles for Cupertino.

Matadors fall

Monta Vista could have helped the Pioneers and Firebirds with a win over Mountain View on Friday afternoon, but it wasn't to be.

The Spartans roared past the Matadors 33-13 to wrap up, at the time, at least a share of the league championship.

Monta Vista finished a disappointing 3-7 season. The Mats were 2-4 in the El Camino Division.

Mountain View jumped out to a 19-0 halftime lead before Monta Vista finally got on the scoreboard in the third quarter.

Ryan Katz, who earlier in the season topped the 2,000-yard career rushing mark, hauled in a 27-yard TD toss from junior quarterback Jon Garfield to cut the Spartans' lead to 19-6.

Mountain View scored again to go up 26-6, but Monta Vista answered back in a hurry. Jason Martinez ran back the ensuing kick off 95 yards for a touchdown, and Brian Ratkovich kicked the extra point to tighten the score to 26-13.

But the Spartans would score again in the fourth and held on for the 33-13 win.

It was a disappointing year for the Matadors, who had expected to contend for an El Camino Division title. But a mid-season injury to Katz made things difficult for the Mats.

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Rain, tie dampen spirits of Cupertino and Fremont football teams