Saratoga News

Sports

Monta Vista battles from behind to defeat Falcons

By Greg Lydon

Banged up and without some key offensive contributors, the Saratoga football team still managed to quickly jump out to a 14-0 lead in a key game last weekend as they looked to improve to 4-0 in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic.

But the physical contest against Monta Vista took a wrong turn toward trouble for the Falcons in the second half, as the Matadors stunned the Falcons with a 21-point flurry to knock off Saratoga 21-14.

Senior running back/defensive back Keon Ghafouri did everything he could for the Falcons, scoring two rushing touchdowns and intercepting two passes on defense.

A punt return for a touchdown, mixed with a fumble that also was returned for a touchdown, helped aid the Monta Vista second-half comeback.

"Monta Vista has a very good, physical football team," Saratoga head coach Kurt Heinrich said after the tough defeat. "A couple plays hurt us badly today. Specials teams and some fumbling issues cost us some points."

The Falcons defense only gave up one big play from the Matador offense, a 43-yard run by quarterback Justin Rahn that pulled Monta Vista within one point in the fourth quarter.

After getting shut out for three quarters, Monta Vista scored 21 points in just over six minutes in the final quarter to escape with a key league victory under the lights on a cool Saturday evening in Cupertino.

"We can't give up special teams touchdowns--that really hurts," Saratoga linebacker Jon Yen said. "We played a great first half, but things got out of hand in the fourth quarter. I don't really know what to say, I'm just ready to think about next week now and put this one behind us."

Yen set the tone from the beginning for the Falcons, recording one sack and assisting on another on the first defensive series for Saratoga.

A botched punt attempt gave the ball to Monta Vista at the Saratoga 18-yard line but the defense rose up to keep the Matadors from moving forward.

Noseguard Jasper Loren and Yen blasted Rahn on a bull-rush up the middle for a six-yard loss. The next play Yen assisted linebacker Zach Kowitz on a sack as the Matadors offense was stuck in the mud early.

Saratoga forced a turnover on downs and intercepted the ball twice on defense in a dominant display of defense in the first half.

The offense was without star running back Gabe Essner due to injury, but got things going on the ground with two lengthy scoring drives in the first half.

Essner opened the game at running back but was forced out with a leg injury on the third possession of the game for the Falcons.

Matthew Spencer and Ghafouri picked up the slack, leading the Falcons toward their first touchdown.

Ghafouri scored two six-yard touchdown runs in the first half to give Saratoga a 14-0 lead going into halftime.

"Going into the half, we were right where we wanted to be in the game," Heinrich said. "Losing Gabe hurt our productivity in the second half. We fell a little short tonight."

After a sloppy third quarter for each offense, Saratoga ran into trouble on special teams. Saratoga's usually powerful running game was held in check in the second half by the large defensive front from Monta Vista.

Saratoga was forced from their own 4-yard line when Monta Vista got a huge play to spark the fourth quarter comeback.

Billy Guardino took the punt on a bounce and took off down the far sideline for an electric 40-yard return to put Monta Vista on the board with 10:26 left in the game.

Monta Vista came within one point at 14-13 after the long touchdown run by Rahn, but the two-point conversion attempt failed, giving the Falcons a slim 14-13 lead with 5:04 left.

When it rains, it pours. The next series continued the downward spiral of problems for Saratoga as a fumble was picked up and run in for a 10-yard touchdown, giving Monta Vista the lead for the first time with 4:52 left in the game. The two-point conversion was good, giving Monta Vista a 21-14 lead late in the contest.

Falcon quarterback Kyle Guengerich had an up-and-down evening but led the Falcons down the field trying to tie the game.

Guengerich hit big wide receiver Andrew Capek on a 20-yard gain as the Falcons had the ball on the 4-yard line with 18.1 seconds left to play.

"On fourth down we wanted to go with an option play and try to sneak it in there for the score," Heinrich said. "We liked what we had, we just didn't get it done."

On fourth-and-goal, Monta Vista stuffed the option run from the Saratoga signal-caller, ending the comeback attempt and giving Monta Vista the dramatic victory.

Saratoga is now 3-1 in division play (5-3 overall), while Monta Vista is 3-1-1 in league action (4-3-1 overall) with the Central Coast Section bid up for grabs in the wild and wacky El Camino Division.

Saratoga, Monta Vista, Homestead (2-1-1, 6-1-1) and Lynbrook (3-1, 5-3) are in a virtual tie for first place with two weeks remaining in the league season.

The Falcons will host Gunn (1-4, 3-5) on Nov. 2, 7 p.m., before finishing up league play at Lynbrook. The Matadors, who tied Homestead earlier this year (they won the tiebreaker that will break any tie in the league standings between the two teams), face Wilcox in a non-league game this week before finishing up the regular season against Fremont (2-2, 5-3).

Lynbrook will challenge Homestead before facing Saratoga, and the Mustangs wind up with Cupertino (0-4, 0-8).