Sobrato’s offense, defense goes flat in 38-19 loss at Soquel
SOQUEL — When a team beats up another for the second consecutive season, albeit by a slimmer margin, it is customary for the winning coach to point out the opposing club’s improvements.
Ron Myers did so with sincerity Friday after his Soquel Knights pounded Sobrato 38-19 at Dewey Tompkins Field. The praise may have sounded good to Sobrato a year ago, when it dropped a 25-point decision to Soquel at Richert Field. But this year’s Bulldogs weren’t searching for moral victories as they loaded the buses for a long trip home. They have lost nine of their last 11 games dating back to 2008.
They are tired of losing.
“We lost tonight; what’s there to be content with?” Sobrato coach Nick Borello said. “They didn’t do anything we didn’t expect or anything we haven’t seen before. We just didn’t execute.”
Coming off their first season-opening win in program history, the Bulldogs were confident they could slow their opponents from the Santa Cruz Athletic League and their crafty flexbone offense. That went out the window in a hurry, though, as the Knights built a 35-7 halftime lead with five consecutive touchdowns.
“This kind of humbled us,” Sobrato two-way lineman Glenn Patterson said.
“We knew the game plan. We knew their whole game plan. We just didn’t get our key jobs done,” tight end/linebacker Vincent Alfonseca added.
Sobrato made the most of a second half against Soquel’s reserves. Patrick Bacciarelli completed 6 of 8 for 123 yards, and fullback Ralph Jackson found the end zone on two short runs in the fourth quarter.
But the Bulldogs’ biggest achievements spanned the opening 8 1/2 minutes. After blunting the Knights’ first drive, Sobrato staged a striking 11-play series capped by Marcus Patrick’s touchdown on a 17-yard counter run. Bacciarelli kept the drive going on a fourth-and-one play when he tucked a fake handoff and ran for 10 yards.
“They were killing us underneath,” Myers said. “We were going too far upfield and they were running underneath.
“Sobrato is much improved. They’ve put in a lot of work, especially for their running game. After those first few drives, our guys were thinking, ‘Oh, that’s how you defend them.'”
Soquel (2-1) had nine men in the box the rest of the game and blitzed almost every play. The Bulldogs didn’t cross midfield again until the eight-minute mark in the third quarter.
“We were not picking it up,” Borello said. “We had guys not picking up things that we learned and ran many times.”
The Knights’ picked up steam on their second drive and, from there, were nearly unstoppable. They tied the game on Matt Malone’s 37-yard catch-and-run and pushed ahead with two rushing touchdowns by Nick Alarcon and Tyler Evey.
Alarcon scored on a 2-yard plunge a play after defensive back Tevyn Gangloff intercepted a tipped pass and returned it 25 yards. Evey broke loose on a 92-yard power run and followed his seismic front five across the goal line from seven yards out. Alarcon cashed in on a 15-yard blast with 1:55 left in the second quarter, and pushed the Knights ahead 38-7 in the third with a 22-yard field goal that followed Gangloff’s second pick.
“We need to work on not making those little mistakes. They add up,” Borello said. “The start of the game, we were fast. Then they made some adjustments. We didn’t adjust to their adjustments.”
Evey carried 10 times for 141 yards, and Soquel quarterback Jacob Czuk finished 3-for-4 passing for 102 yards and a score before halftime.
“That first half was just disgusting,” Sobrato linebacker Ryan Brewer said. “We just weren’t executing. We knew we had the game plan to win tonight. I feel like we let our coaches down.”
The Bulldogs made some amends in the second half. Bacciarelli bounced back from his two turnovers to hook up with wideout Chris Bradley for long play-action fades of 33 and 43 yards. Bacciarelli kept alive a 12-play, 78-yard drive with a 6-yard scamper on fourth-and-one at the Soquel 7-yard line. Jackson plowed in on the next play.
Bacciarelli threw another fade to Bradley, and Obi Mbonu reeled off a 10-yard gain to set up Jackson’s next touchdown run from the four.
“Patrick made some mistakes but he didn’t quit,” Borello said.
Bradley hauled in five catches for 101 yards, and Mbonu led Sobrato in rushing with 59 yards. Jackson ran for 37 yards on 16 attempts.
“Ralph and Obi ran hard today,” Borello said. “Our running game has improved, but it’s easy to improve off last year. … We have a lot of work to do.”
The Bulldogs have four days to polish up before their most anticipated games of the season. They will try for their first win against Live Oak on Friday, when the Morgan Hill rivals meet in El Toro Bowl III at Richert. Sobrato opens West Valley Division play against league favorite Silver Creek on Oct. 2.
“Our confidence is still high. We’re still feeling good,” Alfonseca said. “We’re a strong team. We just got to learn from this. We got to come back hard (this) week.”
