Santa Clara Panthers 16, Pee Wee Raiders 8 Santa Clara Lions 27,
Jr. Midget Raiders 6
Santa Clara Panthers 16, Pee Wee Raiders 8
On a muddy field at Britton Middle School, the Raiders locked up with the Santa Clara Panthers in a steady rain, on a day that felt more like winter than fall.
Santa Clara came into Saturday’s game undefeated and expecting an easy time with the Raiders, as they had not allowed a touchdown all season.
Weather dominated the first half with the Raiders and Panthers both slogging it out between the 30-yard lines in a tight, defensive struggle.
The Panthers recovered one of three Raiders fumbles on the 43-yard line and took more than nine minutes to punch it in. The Raiders only had the ball for three drives in the first half and were unable to score.
In the second half, the rain stopped, but the Raiders gave the ball away at the end of a long run in the third quarter.
On their ensuing possession the Panthers put together another long drive, going 68 yards and churning up four minutes, scoring on a nine-yard run to take a 16-0 lead.
The fourth quarter was better for the Raiders, as they put together long drives and scored their first touchdown with 3:43 left in the game.
Capping a 42-yard drive, Taylor Turnipseed tossed a nine-yard pass to Trevor Bearden for the first score on the Panthers this season. Drew Glines lead the Raiders rushing game with 28 yards and Bearden had 27 yards receiving.
Defense and time of possession were the story of the day. The Panthers were frustrated by the Raiders’ swarming tackling, with Jarod Cerniglia recording three solo tackles and nine assists to lead the Raiders. Brandon Duran was in on eight tackles, Kyle Quadros was in on 11, Paul Salinas-Ruiz was in on 10, Joey Rodriguez was in on nine, and Dalton Craig and Jacob LeDon both assisted on eight. The Panthers held the ball for nearly 30 of the 40 minutes in the game.
The Raiders are confident that they will see Santa Clara again in the playoffs, with a different result.
“You can’t win without the ball,” Coach Rick Dunham said.
Santa Clara Lions 27, Jr. Midget Raiders 6
Coming into Saturday’s game at Britton Middle School as the hometown underdogs the Morgan Hill Jr. Midget Raiders used the rain soaked field to their advantage, at least for the first half.
The Raiders played to a 0-0 tie at half, but eventually got worn down by a fierce Lion team, and lost it’s second game of the young season.
Santa Clara racked up 201 yards of offense and scored four touchdowns.
Morgan Hill’s offense countered with only 88 yards of total offense with 55 of those coming on two pass completions.
With 5:43 remaining in the third quarter Santa Clara punched it in from the one-yard line, and completed the two-point conversion to take an 8-0 lead.
The Lions scored again two minutes and 20 seconds later on a 40-yard romp up the middle, but missed the P.A.T. to make it 14 -0.
On the Raiders’ first possession of the fourth quarter Morgan Hill’s Danny Saporito connected with Jerry Jacob on a 35-yard touchdown pass down the sideline to bring the score to within a touchdown.
The momentum swing was short lived,, however, as the Lions scored on their next play with a 33-yard run between the tackle and tight end to bring the score to 20-6.
The Lions capped the scoring on the day with a five-yard touchdown run with 3:56 left.
Franky Palmer ran for 30 yards on 12 carries and Steven Villarreal caught a 25-yard pass.
Tyler Lerma had four solo tackles and three assists, and Ronnie Bryant made four solo tackles. Saporito, Pederson, and Priest also had strong games on the defensive side of the ball
