The Morgan Hill Raiders Pop Warner football program opened its
season this weekend with the Jubilee, a fundraiser for the league,
at the Britton Middle School field.
The Morgan Hill Raiders Pop Warner football program opened its season this weekend with the Jubilee, a fundraiser for the league, at the Britton Middle School field.
In the first game of the season, the Raiders faced the Santa Teresa Bull Dogs.
In the Mitey Mites division, which doesn’t keep an official score, the Raiders’ Silver Team coached by Rick Dunham, Mark  Rizzo, Will  Powers, Greg Birnie and Mike Nydam ended up scoring a pair of touchdowns.Â
The game was fast-paced for the mostly rookie team and the players were challenged with the difference between a right sweep and a left sweep and remembering to put in their mouth guards.
 The Silver team, with Blake Porzio at quarterback, scored first with a  handoff to Frankie Gomez for a 35-yard TD run. Gomez set the tone for the Raiders offense and defense with exciting plays and tackles throughout the game.
Both teams exchanged long breakaway runs for touchdowns during the game.
Also instrumental to the offense was Max Morales, who made key blocks at fullback for the Raiders’ running game in addition to running the ball up the middle.
The Silver Raiders made several defensive stops with notable tackles by Brandon Source, Blake Birnie and Drew Glines, and two  timely interceptions by Max Morales. Morales also had a huge tackle midway through the game and the stands and sidelines erupted in cheers.
The entire game was exciting and the teams evenly matched.
The Raiders had the ball in the waning moments of the game, hoping for the game-winning score. In the last set of downs, the Raiders had a gutsy pass call fall incomplete, followed by two running plays executed by Frankie Gomez that gained good yardage, but the Raiders were stopped by the Bulldogs as time ran out on the game.
