Sobrato didn’t play an easy nonleague schedule, but the Bulldogs came away with a big win ahead of the start of league play.
Now coming out of the bye week, Sobrato is ready to tackle a new challenge that is the West Valley Division.
“The kids stayed focused with that same energy after the game (last) Saturday,” said coach Tony Holmes. “We went Monday through Thursday in practice and took Friday off. They had a lot of energy on field and wanted to continue to go but we told them to enjoy their weekend.”
Holmes said the break was a good time to get healthy and stoke the fires to get the kids ready for the start of league.
And two of the first three teams are going to prove just how good Sobrato is compared to the upper third of the division.
In the first three weeks, the Bulldogs will likely face two of the teams that will contend for a league title with last years hard-luck tri-champs Overfelt and this year’s Cinderella team in Andrew Hill.
First up will be Hill who had not won a game since November, 2014. Now Hill has turned things around and currently sit at 3-0 heading into league play.
“It’s been a rough go for them,” Holmes said. “But they have a good group young men coming up of underclassmen. They have a pretty simple system in place and they have play makers.”
Hill will not hide what it is going to do against Sobrato: It will make sure quarterback James Bankston will have the ball and he will make plays for them.
And when he doesn’t have the ball, he is tasked with going to get the ball from the other team.
“He definitely plays a major part of the success of that team,” Holmes said. “He plays quarterback, free safety, kickoff return, punt return; he plays multiple positions. He does play a major, major part on team.”
Holmes said watching the Bankston on film has been a point of emphasis and he believes he has a game plan to deal with him.
“We’ve got to make sure we come up and make thorough tackles,” Holmes said. “We’ve got to get physical with him. It’s the only way I see to keep him honest.”
At the same time, however, Holmes said he is not going to let Hill take his boys out of what they want to do in the game and that is run the ball.
“I hope they don’t overlook or underestimate what we can do when we come to their house on Friday,” Holmes said. “I know definitely going to be running the ball a decent amount. There will be nothing fancy, no trick plays. We’ll let them figure it out at halftime. We’re going to play straight down hill football Friday night.”
Holmes said he believes his line has improved over the last few games and is expecting them to show what they have going against the Falcons.
Holmes said he feels the team is ready for the big stage and wants to show that Sobrato is going to compete in the West Valley.
“We’re excited about league play starting. We’re excited about taking on Andrew Hill. We’re excited they are 3-0. We know they have momentum and are getting a lot of publicity for what they’ve done because of last two years. But it’s a good opportunity for us to show our skill set too.”
Sobrato will kickoff at Andrew Hill starting at 7 p.m. in San Jose.
