Friday was a long night for the Sobrato varsity football team.
The Bulldogs, 2-3, were completely shutdown in a 57-0 loss to
Alisal in Salinas and they lost their starting quarterback in the
third quarter. On a play where Matt Kellett threw an interception
run back for a touchdown, he was hit by a member of the Trojans and
suffered a concussion, according to head coach Jeff Patterson.
Friday was a long night for the Sobrato varsity football team.
The Bulldogs, 2-3, were completely shutdown in a 57-0 loss to Alisal in Salinas and they lost their starting quarterback in the third quarter.
On a play where Matt Kellett threw an interception run back for a touchdown, he was hit by a member of the Trojans and suffered a concussion, according to head coach Jeff Patterson.
Play was stopped for more than a half an hour as medical personnel worked on Kellett who also complained of neck pain. As a precautionary step, Patterson said, Kellett was taken by ambulance to the hospital.
After the game, Patterson’s only thoughts were to be with his quarterback, but knew he had to return to Morgan Hill with the team.
“I wanted to be with him, but they’re telling me I shouldn’t,” Patterson said. “Besides, (hospital personnel) wouldn’t let me see him if I did go.”
Up to that point, the Sobrato offense had been completely neutralized. Kellett was sacked once and forced to hurry plays or scramble away from the Trojan onslaught.
Kellett led his team to one first down right before he was carted off the field. In the same quarter, the Bulldogs converted their only other first down of the game.
Alisal dominated the entire game, scoring on its opening drive on the way to a 21-point first quarter and a 36-0 lead at half time.
By the second half, thanks in part to the Kellett interception and a fumble, the Trojans scored three more times bringing the score to 57-0.
The Trojans mostly kept the ball on the ground, rushing for 335 yards out of 369 total yards gained on offense. The Bulldogs were held to 13 yards on the entire night.
“We have just got to keep playing,” Patterson said. “We lost 57-0, but we will just keep playing and keep working hard.”
But not all went badly for Sobrato.
With more than three minutes to go in the second quarter, the Sobrato defense stopped the Trojan attack for the first time, leaving Alisal to settle for kicking a field goal.
Lineman Mike Mora, however, had other plans when he blocked the 33-yard attempt.
After the Trojans scored their final points, the Bulldog defense did not allow so much as a first down. Alisal turned the ball over on downs twice and punted once.
Defensive end Darian Chatman said Alisal was no better than Santa Clara, who beat the Bulldogs 48-6, except the Trojans had speed.
“This team was faster than Santa Clara,” Chatman said. “Playing fast was the key factor of (Alisal).”
Chatman said that the Bulldogs no sooner got their defensive play then the Trojans were snapping the ball.
Runningback Eric Woodruff said they have to learn from Alisal and make adjustments when playing other teams.
“We’ve got to play fast football,” Woodruff said. “We are playing hard and we are playing with heart.”
Both Woodruff and Chatman indicated that Alisal is a new team who knows what it’s like to be in Sobrato’s shoes.
“These guys were in our position three years ago,” Woodruff said.
Alisal head coach Sunil Smith noted that Sobrato has a lot of talent that will take them far. He said while the game was never in doubt, there were little things his team was doing wrong that made him nervous.
“They’re going to go a long way with coach Patterson,” Smith said. “Even late in the game, they’re coaches are still jumping around. We could have played better tonight. When you play a team you know you are better than, you have to execute. … I’m not thrilled with how we played tonight.”
Woodruff noted that the team knew that people were expecting them to lose, but the Bulldogs were going out to play the game and do the best they could.
“We heard what was being said about us,” Woodruff said. “We came in here with the attitude that we were either going to win or we were going to work our butts off.”
