The gridiron showdown of unbeatens in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League turned out to be less of a battle and more of a walk in the park for the powerful Fremont Firebirds last Friday night at Mountain View.
Scoring 40-plus points for the fourth consecutive game and the fifth time overall this season, the Firebirds battered the host Spartans 41-7, dealing Mountain View its first league loss and remaining in a virtual tie for the El Camino lead with Homestead.
Fremont, which has now outscored its opposition 282-75 (an average victory margin of 29 1/2 points per game), raised its SCVAL ledger to 4-0, a half game better than Homestead’s 3-0 mark.
The Firebirds (7-0 overall), who play Cupertino (1-3 in league, 4-3 overall) Halloween Night at Cupertino High in a 7 p.m. contest, end their regular season with Homestead on Nov. 14 at home.
Sophomore quarterback Phillip Tran threw for three touchdowns and a season-high 315 yards to spearhead a Fremont offensive assault that piled up 633 total yards. It marked the third time this year that Tran had connected for three TD tosses in a game, and the fifth time he had thrown for 200-plus yards. For the season, he has thrown for 1,490 yards and 15 touchdowns.
Tran hooked up for scoring strikes twice with senior Michael Valles, who caught six passes for 153 yards, and once with junior Jordan Hendy, who hauled in four passes for 70 yards. One of the Tran-to-Valles connections went for 65 yards, the longest pass play Fremont has recorded this year.
In addition to their season-best passing performance, the Firebirds, behind a dominant offensive line anchored by center Ruben Aguilera, rolled up another 318 yards on the ground on just 32 carries, an average of 9.9 yards per rush.
Senior Devante Sanchez led the way with 168 yards on 14 carries, twice reaching paydirt. Senior Jisiah Ybarra toted the ball just three times but racked up another 82 yards (an average of 27.3 yards per carry), including a 52-yard touchdown dash.
The defense, which limited Mountain View to just 34 passing yards and only 173 total yards of offense, was sparked by the overall play of Ybarra at linebacker.
Mountain View will attempt to get back in the win column Saturday afternoon at home when it takes on El Camino Division co-leader Homestead in a 1 p.m. encounter.
Homestead, like Fremont, has been on an offensive roll of late, racking up its third straight 40-plus point performance last Friday in a 42-7 dismantling of the Gunn Titans at home.
Junior quarterback Jerome Holloway threw for two touchdowns and ran for another to help pave the way to the Mustangs’ third SCVAL triumph.
Holloway put the Mustangs ahead to stay in the first quarter with a 9-yard scoring toss to senior running back Ryan Allemandi, and later combined with junior Dominic Faria for a 38-yard TD bomb. In between the scoring strikes, Holloway broke loose for a 30-yard touchdown run in the second period, helping the Mustangs build a 21-0 halftime lead.
Short touchdown runs by sophomore Rajah Ward, who rushed for a team-best 71 yards, junior Devaun Crittle and junior Sam Kim and six PAT kicks by senior John Rak accounted for the rest of Homestead’s scoring.
The Mustang defense, which has allowed just 21 points in its three SCVAL contests, was led by the play of Crittle (seven solo tackles) and junior Sebastian Knoefel (four solo tackles).
In other El Camino Division action, the Los Altos Eagles slipped past the Cupertino Pioneers 44-37 on a late touchdown run by Patrick Vargas to even their league record at 2-2. Cupertino, meanwhile, fell to 1-3.
The Pioneers forged a 24-7 lead midway through the first half on the strength of two Kyle Avvakumovits-to-Anthony Pozzetti touchdown passes and an 82-yard TD sprint by Edison Hernandez, but then surrendered 29 unanswered Eagle points.
Down 36-24, Cupertino stormed back to tie the game late in the fourth quarter on the strength of Marcos Anton field goals of 29 and 43 yards and a 3-yard touchdown bolt by Morgan Saenz. Earlier in the game, Anton had also booted a 42 yard field goal.
But with less than a minute left in the game, Vargas broke the tie with a 14-yard touchdown run and a two-point conversion to give Los Altos the win.
Los Altos hosts the Saratoga Falcons Friday at 3:30 p.m.
Like Los Altos, the Falcons also evened their SCVAL record at 2-2 last week, outlasting Monta Vista 37-28 in a De Anza Division tilt.
Sophomore quarterback William Liddle completed 21 of 30 passes for 235 yards and three touchdowns to pace Saratoga to victory, twice combining with senior wide receiver Joey Medeiros for scoring strikes.
Liddle connected with Medeiros from 24 yards out and again from 13 yards out to give the Falcons a 13-0 lead by the end of the first quarter. But Monta Vista responded with a pair of 7-yard touchdown runs by Max McCann in the second period to take a brief 14-13 lead.
Saratoga regained the lead 16-14 just before halftime on a 17-yard field goal by Robby Gragnola, only to have the Mats surge back ahead early in the third period on yet another 7-yard paydirt jaunt by McCann.
Fourth-quarter touchdown runs of 41 yards by Medeiros and 18 yards by Ken Wu, however, settled the issue for good in Saratoga’s favor.
McCann had a big night for the Mats, running up 139 yards on 22 carries. Junior quarterback Golan Gingold chipped in with 50 yards on 10 tries and also connected on 6 of 9 passes for 107 yards.
Pravav Iyer caught a pair of tosses for 48 yards and Ryan Granzella grabbed two for 38. Akshay Savale snagged a 20-yard pass from Gingold and Radwan Hamwi also had a catch.
Along with being an offensive leader, McCann was tops on the Monta Vista defense with 12 tackles. Tommy Orvick finished with nine tackles, Savale had eight, Danny Takahasi five, Iyer and Jasraj Ghuman four apiece and Anshu Jain and Nolan Hurtado three each.
Granzella, Zacary Low, Gingold, Andy Tu and Nikhi Goel were also in on tackles.
Monta Vista slipped to 0-4 in league and 1-6 overall with the loss. The Matadors next take on Wilcox (3-1, 5-2) on Friday night at home in a 7 p.m. start.
In a non-division match-up last Friday at Santa Clara High, the Santa Clara Panthers spotted the Lynbrook Vikings an early 6-0 lead before storming to a 54-14 rout of the visitors. It marked the second consecutive week that Lynbrook’s defense had yielded 54 points.
The Vikes, who are 0-3 in El Camino Division play, tumbled to 0-7 on the season, and have now been outscored 337-101 this year. They will visit Gunn on Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m.
