Willow Glen Resident
Sports
It was a 'lights out' performance for Falcons
By Dick Sparrer
T im Lugo certainly has a flair for the dramatic. .
The Saratoga Falcons appeared ready to hand Lugo his first victory as a head varsity football coach, and then everything went black.
The clock struck 10 on Friday night, and the lights went out at Saratoga's Benny Pierce Field. All that was visible through the black night sky were lights shining the press box atop the bleachers and the glistening red numbers on the still operational scoreboard that told the story: Saratoga 27, Westmont 13, and 55.9 seconds left to play in the fourth quarter.
It took a few minutes for officials to determine the cause of the problem and a few more minutes for the banks of overhead lights to power up for play to resume. And when it did, four plays later the Falcons had their first win of the 2008 season--and Lugo had the first victory of his career as a varsity football head coach.
"It feels pretty good, because the kids worked hard and they never lost faith in what we're doing," said Lugo, whose club posted the win after losing its first two games--30-0 to Menlo-Atherton and 27-14 to Alisal.
Sure, it's a big win for the Falcons, but how about for Lugo?
"It's huge," he said with a grin. "It gives us a little confidence in what we're trying to do here.
And to beat an 'A' league team ... "
Saratoga started the game against Westmont in much the same way the Falcons had started their first two games--trailing.
Westmont took an early lead when quarterback Cannon Bernarding ran 4 yards for a touchdown early in the second quarter.
But the Falcons came charging back against Westmont. Michael Beam returned Westmont's kickoff 21 yards to the Saratoga 33 before Mathew Spencer broke off a 10-yard run. On the next play, senior quarterback Michael Guercio faked a handoff to Casey Farmer and kept the ball on the option, racing 57 yards for a touchdown to tie the game 6-6.
Behind Jens Karren and Jasper Lorens, who finished the night as Saratoga's tackling leaders, the Falcons stopped the Warriors on three plays and a punt, then the offense went back to work.
Alex Wokas got behind the Westmont secondary and made a diving catch on a Vincent Carstens pass for 34 yards and a first down inside the Westmont 10-yard line. Three plays later, Spencer swept left and cut inside for a 4-yard touchdown run, and Chris Chung kicked the extra point that gave the Falcons a 13-6 lead. Spencer would finish the night with an impressive 114 yards on 11 carries.
But there was still plenty of fight left in the Warriors. Billy Brownridge ran back the Saratoga kickoff 17 yards to the 36, then two plays later hauled in a 64-yard touchdown pass from Bernarding. Jackson Vlay's kick tied the score 13-13 with 6:51 left in the half.
Bernarding had a sensational night for the Warriors, hitting on 20 of 44 passes for 261 yards, despite having at least half a dozen passes dropped by his receivers.
Saratoga came back driving the ball down the field, but a fumbled snap was recovered by Westmont middle linebacker Chad Christopher at the 3-yard line and the drive was stopped short of the goal line.
Three Christopher runs for 11 yards and two Bernarding passes to sophomore Alex Kamara for 26 more took the Warriors to their own 40, where they faced a third and 1 with less than a minute left in the first half. An incomplete pass left them in a punting situation, so the Warriors booted the ball away.
Punter Michael Ryan attempted to kick the ball away from Spencer, and his 43-yard punt bounced down to the 17-yard line. But Spencer scooped it up on a bounce and picked his way through the field of Warriors to run it back 83 yards for a touchdown. With the return, Saratoga took a 19-13 lead with just 29.6 seconds left in the half.
Westmont tried to come out throwing, but Bernarding's pass was picked off by Carstens.
Each team threatened in the third quarter, Saratoga driving to the Westmont 16 and the Warriors moving to the Falcons' 6-yard line, but each time they turned the ball over on downs. It was a key defensive play by Westmont's Myles Johansen that stopped the Falcons.
Saratoga responded, though, with an eight-play, 94-yard touchdown drive for an insurance score.
Westmont struggled after that, managing just two first downs the rest of the way.
Bernarding's favorite target in the game was Kamara, who pulled down six passes for 89 yards. Brownridge snagged five passes for 89 yards, Christopher, who led the ground show with 40 yards on 12 carries, grabbed four for 30, Nehemiah Tia three for 33, Vlay one for 10 and Scott Alves one for 10.
Leading the Warriors to 311 yards of total offense was an offensive front of tackles Ryan Ramans and Joshua Stucky Elliot, guards Jacob Flores and Ryan Mendez and center Zach Walker.
Christopher was the defensive star of the night. The Westmont linebacker was in on 14 tackles, including three for losses. He forced one fumble and recovered another.
Alves, Johansen and Michael Combs finished with eight tackles each, Ryan Munguia had four, Justin Graham and Brian Butruce had three apiece and Brownridge, Ryan, Ramans and Matthew Stumbough were also in on stops.
The loss left Westmont 1-2 in the preseason heading into its league opener this week in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League. The Warriors will visit Leland on Oct. 3, 7 p.m. The Chargers are 1-1-1 for the year.
Photograph by Mark Tantrum
Westmont quarterback Cannon Bernarding keeps the football for a gain in last Friday night's game at Saratoga. Bernarding ran for a touchdown and completed 20 passes for 261 yards and a TD, but the Warriors lost 27-13.