It hasn’t been often during Sobrato’s two years of playing
varsity football that it has entered a game as a decided
favorite.
San Jose – It hasn’t been often during Sobrato’s two years of playing varsity football that it has entered a game as a decided favorite.
That was the case on Friday as the Bulldogs squared off against winless Yerba Buena, and Sobrato made sure it took care of business with a convincing 35-15 win.
“It feels really good to perform the way we expect,” said senior running back Erik Woodruff, who ran for a season-high 164 yards on 15 carries and scored three touchdowns. “We were a little shaky in the first quarter, but finally when we got on offense we got the ball moving.”
After last week’s 7-6 loss to Prospect, which is now tied for the Blossom Valley Athletic League West Valley Division lead at 3-0, the Bulldogs were hungry to get back on track.
“We took a tough loss last week so we used this as fuel for this one,” senior lineman Genaro Redmond said.
Sobrato (2-3-1, 2-1 BVAL) briefly trailed when the Warriors (0-6, 0-3) capped their initial drive with a 34-yard field goal and the Bulldogs first two drives ended in punts.
But after that, Sobrato got into gear. Sophomore quarterback Erick Levell, who later injured his ACL and is expected to miss the remainder of the season, connected with sophomore running back Anthony Zizzo for a 32-yard touchdown.
Senior linebacker Nathan Fiala recorded an interception on Yerba Buena’s next drive and Woodruff plunged his way in from four yards out to make it 14-3 early in the second quarter.
The Bulldogs took any potential life out of the Warriors on their next possession. With the ball at Sobrato’s 39-yard line, Yerba Buena running back Timothy Duhn ran around the left end.
While he was wrapped up by Sobrato’s Tim Cavanaugh and Juvenal Rodriguez, Zizzo entered the play and wrested the ball from Duhn’s hand to give it back to the Bulldogs.
On Sobrato’s next play, Woodruff broke loose on a back-breaking 59-yard touchdown run to make it 21-3.
“That just stuck the dagger in them right there. They were done,” Bulldogs coach Dan Brown said. “And for a team that’s 0-5, that hits them and it really takes the wind out of their sail and it’s tough to recover.”
Zizzo gave credit to his teammates for allowing him to make the play.
“They helped me out,” he said. “They hit them first and I came in and made the strip. They did a good job wrapping him up.”
Levell added a 1-yard touchdown run to take a 28-3 halftime lead and Woodruff scored his third touchdown to make it 35-3 in the third quarter before Yerba Buena found the end zone twice in the fourth quarter.
Sobrato had four takeaways in the game without turning the ball over once. In addition to play by Zizzo and the Fiala interception, Darian Chatman recovered a fumble that was forced by Michael Wilson and James Russell recovered two fumbles, one on defense and another on offense to prevent a giveaway.
Junior varsity
Sobrato trailed 7-6 at halftime before storming back to beat Yerba Buena 21-7.
John Cuevas intercepted a Warriors pass in the end zone early in the third quarter and the Bulldogs responded by driving 96 yards to take the lead on a Ricky Estremera touchdown.
Taylor Ortez scored two touchdowns and Adam Guerra also had an interception as Sobrato improved to 6-0 on the season.
