Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Lynbrook's Jonah Vinciguerra (33) and Mike Burns team up for a tackle in scrimmage action against Mt. Pleasant.

Falcons miss something in '95

And Saratoga football players are going for it in 1996

By Dick Sparrer

The Saratoga Falcons accomplished plenty in 1995.

They were contenders in the rugged De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, they won a Central Coast Section playoff berth and they advanced to the CCS Division IV finals.

But there was one thing Saratoga didn't do--win a championship. And that's exactly what the Falcons are shooting for in 1996.

"The team attitude is great," head coach Mike Machado said, "and they're hungry to finish the only thing they didn't last year."

The Falcons ended up third in league play, and lost in the CCS championship game. They hope to take care of that this season.

Saratoga lost a lot to graduation, especially up front, but a solid crop of returners give Machado hope for a big year in 1996.

Senior wide receiver Brennan Carroll (6-foot-4, 210 pounds) and senior tight end Joe Brady (6-foot-3, 220) are a pair of all-league first-team returners who will lead the Falcons into the campaign.

Brian Carroll (6-foot-1, 200), a senior wide receiver-outside linebacker, is back after earning all-league second-team honors last fall.

The Carroll and Brady give senior quarterback David Goni (6-foot-1, 170) some big targets to shoot for. Goni was an all-league honorable mention choice as a junior.

Senior linebacker John Herndon (5-foot-10, 190) was another all-league honorable mention pick last year who returns for the Falcons.

"We like our specialty position people," Machado said, "but our line will be a question mark due to graduation. We have some guys we think can do a job, though."

The Falcons will also get some help from last year's frosh-soph club with juniors Mike Black and Ross Hanson the top prospects.

Black (6-foot-1, 170) is a quarterback-free safety who won all-league first-team honors last season and was the most valuable player on the Saratoga frosh-soph squad. Hanson (6-foot, 240) is an offensive and defensive lineman who was also named an all-league first-teamer on the frosh-soph.

The Falcons, who last won a title in 1994 back in the El Camino Division of the SCVAL, are coming off of a solid 8-3-2 season. They finished third in the De Anza Division last year, and Machado is looking for about the same finish in 1996.

He figures that Wilcox, Homestead and Los Gatos are the division favorites heading into the year and picks his own Falcons to finish "third or fourth."

The Saratoga players, though, are pointing a little higher. They have some unfinished business to take care of this fall.

New coach leads Vikes into action

Bob Blaschke is new to Lynbrook football. But the first-year Lynbrook coach is certainly not new to football coaching.

Blaschke comes to Lynbrook after serving five years as a collegiate assistant coach and two years as a high school assistant.

And as he enters his first year as the Lynbrook boss, he's greeted by four senior returners who plan on making the Vikings winners in 1996.

Steve Horner, Ean Williams, Shawn Flood and Jeremy Davis are seniors returners from a Lynbrook squad that posted a 3-6-1 record a year ago.

Williams (6-foot-2, 200) is a top running back for the Vikings, and Flood (5-foot-9, 170) is a solid returner at wide receiver. The two will also start in the defensive secondary for Lynbrook.

Horner (6-foot-1, 210) and Davis (6-foot-2, 285) will start both ways in the Lynbrook offensive and defensive lines.

Newcomers Kevin Boehm, Brian White and Tim Moore are top prospects coming up from the Lynbrook frosh-soph.

Boehm (6-foot-2, 185), a junior, is expected to take over at quarterback for the Vikings in 1996, and White (5-foot-9, 170) and Moore (6-foot-1, 170) are sophomores who will join Williams in the backfield.

Blaschke, who picks Cupertino and Mountain View as the title favorites in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League this fall, hopes to return Lynbrook to its winning ways.

And 1996 should be only the beginning.