Bulldogs force four turnovers and score late touchdown to
salvage tie
Morgan Hill – Give the Sobrato High football team another quarter and it assures that it would’ve definitely beat Cupertino in its season-opener at Live Oak on Friday night.
As it is, the Bulldogs had to settle for a 7-7 tie in the first game of the Dan Brown coaching era.
“I thought we had them. I really did,” Brown said. “I really believed if there was another quarter, it was ours.”
“It’s an improvement from last year losing 22-0,” senior defensive back Michael Wilson added. “But I still think we could’ve beat them. We didn’t everything we could on defense and then offense, they played their hearts out.”
Sobrato, which is coming off a 2-8 campaign and lost to Cupertino 22-0 in last year’s season-opener, had a hard time accepting anything less than a victory.
“We put in too much work to come home with a loss,” senior nose guard Genaro Redmond said. “It was either win or nothing. But it didn’t work out. We still have a lot to work on in practice.”
Redmond was a big reason why Sobrato (0-0-1) was able to salvage the tie. Trailing 7-0 midway through the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs went for it on fourth down at the Pioneers’ 26-yard line.
But a Steven Gutierrez run up the middle was stopped to turn the ball over on down. On the next play for Cupertino (1-0-1), quarterback Travis Carter-Kneer fumbled and Redmond recovered to give the ball back to Sobrato at the Pioneers 17 with 5:58 left on the clock.
The Bulldogs capitalized as sophomore quarterback Alex Meldrum fired a pass to senior tight end Brandon Duggan for a 17-yard touchdown. Michael Richardson knocked home the extra point to tie the game at 7-7.
Cupertino drove back into Sobrato territory, aiding by a late hit penalty, before being forced to punt with 2:21 remaining in the game.
Ramon Watkins jumpstarted the drive with an 18-yard run and the Bulldogs reached as far at the Pioneer 44, but after catching a short pass, senior wide receiver Joe Anaya was taken down at the Cupertino 47 to end the game.
The defense proved to be a stark improvement over last year, and got better as the game wore on. The Pioneers gained only 35 of their 153 yards in the second half.
“The defense was crazy, especially in the second half,” said senior lineman Darian Chatman, who recovered one fumble and was part of a defense that forced six fumbles and recovered four. “The coaches just told us we had to get out there in the second half.”
Penalties set up what proved to be Cupertino’s lone touchdown, which came early in the second quarter.
A facemask call on the opening play of the drive gave the Pioneers an additional five yards and they went on to convert a fourth-and-1 situation.
Quarterback Yuekai Yu followed the fourth down conversion play by racing for a 28-yard gain and another 15 yards were tacked on due to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Big 5-foot-10, 220-pound fullback Scott Savory took over from there, scoring from eight yards out for the 7-0 lead. Savory finished with a game-high 90 yards on 18 carries.
“We made some mistakes that allowed them to score,” Brown said. “I don’t mind an aggressive mistake, but we can’t be out of whack with what we’re trying to do.”
Senior running Erik Woodruff led the way for Sobrato with 42 yards on seven carries. Gutierrez and Watkins both added 25 yards each and Meldrum completed 7-of-11 passing for 43 yards.
Sobrato will get back at it again this Friday when it travels to face powerhouse Seaside at 7pm.
The Sobrato junior varsity team had a similar fate in its season-opener against Cupertino, with its game ending in a 12-12 tie. The Bulldogs JV team will also be back in action Friday against Seaside, with the kickoff slated for 4:30pm.
