By Pete Borello
Football Game Of The Week
The Gunn High rushing attack must have seemed like a tornado to the Mountain View defense last Friday night at Foothill College.
The Spartans could see it coming, but they couldn’t do a thing to stop it.
Piling up 306 yards on the ground, the Titans beat the Spartans 41-23 in a Santa Clara Valley Athletic League El Camino Division game.
“They were bigger, stronger and faster than us,” said frustrated Mountain View coach Dan Navarro. “When you can’t tackle and stop them, you can’t win.”
Gunn halfback Dustin Steward did most of the damage, running for 225 yards and four touchdowns. Of course, he got some help from his offensive line, which pushed the smaller Spartans around like they were wearing rollerblades.
On Steward’s two longest touchdown runs, which went for 40 and 65 yards, the senior would have scored if the teams were playing two-hand touch.
Early in the game, however, Gunn (2-1, 3-3) wasn’t able to keep two hands on the ball.
The Titans lost fumbles on their first two possessions and Mountain View (0-3, 1-5) capitalized on both of them.
Three plays after Gunn’s Phil Ghilarducci muffed the opening kickoff, Spartans fullback Trevor Hooper was in the end zone on a 1-yard run. Hooper finished with 92 yards and two touchdowns.
After nearly fumbling away the next kickoff, the Titans turned the ball over on their first play from scrimmage when Mountain View defensive back Mark Starrett stripped the ball from halfback Ryan Hayes.
The Gunn defense kept the Spartans out of the end zone this time, though, holding them to a 28-yard field goal by Hal Ellison. This gave Mountain View a 9-0 lead with 8:23 left in the opening quarter.
The Titans regrouped on their next drive and were off and running. Gunn marched 67 yards on 10 plays -all runs - for its first touchdown. Steward, who had 34 yards on the drive, capped it off with a 2-yard burst across the goal line with 4:07 left. But Matt Marinaro missed the extra-point.
Three minutes later, Gunn took the lead on Steward’s 40-yard scamper through the heart of the Mountain View defense.
The Spartans defense stiffened on Gunn’s next possession, forcing a punt after three downs, but Eric Licea was flagged for roughing the punter. The penalty gave the Titans a first down at the Mountain View 30-yard line. Six plays later, Steward scored on another 2-yarder. The extra point put Gunn up 20-9 with 5:34 left in the half.
The Titans kept the game out of reach by scoring touchdowns on their first three possessions of the second half. Sophomore receiver Ghilarducci accounted for two of them on passes of 10 and 14 yards from Marinaro.
Gunn threw five passes in the game and completed them all.
“This was the best full game we’ve played this year,” Gunn coach Jeff Remington said. “Hopefully, it’s the start of something.”
Gunn plays at Cupertino (0-3, 1-5) at 7:30 p.m., Saturday. Mountain View plays its homecoming game vs. Fremont (1-2, 1-5) at 1 p.m., Saturday.
