Spartans struggle vs. Titans, fall 28-7
By Vincent Liu, Town Crier Correspondent
 Gunn’s Adam Juratovac bats down a pass thrown by the Spartans’ Francis Papica. |
It was more than homecoming last Friday afternoon at Mountain View High. It also was the christening of its new synthetic-turf field, completed just in time for its football team’s first true home game of the year.
As its award-winning 204-person marching band finished its number to a rousing ovation by an overflowing home crowd, only a momentous opening kickoff would make the occasion truly special.
As if on cue, Spartan Kevin Harris took the kickoff at his 10-yard line, dashed up the middle, broke in the clear near midfield, veered toward the right sideline and appeared headed for the end zone - and school history. He then lost his balance and fell down at the 8. The rest of his team soon followed suit.
Visiting Gunn proceeded to crash the Spartans’ homecoming party by smothering the host 28-7 for its first SCVAL De Anza Division victory of the season. Gunn improved to 1-3 in the division, 3-4 overall; Mountain View dropped to 1-2, 2-4-1.
Even though Mountain View took advantage of Harris’ game-opening thriller by scoring on its next play for a quick lead, its inability to finish off future drives proved costly. Five of the Spartans’ next seven drives spanned between seven to nine plays, yet each of them resulted in a change of possession.
Twice in the fourth quarter the Spartans were heading for the end zone, only to have their pockets picked clean by the Titans’ Tom Blake. The 6-foot-3 linebacker leapt high in the air at the line of scrimmage to intercept a pass at his 25 to preserve a 21-7 lead. With his team leading 28-7, Blake duplicated his feat, this time at his 15, to kill off Mountain View’s final scoring chance,
As interceptions are usually made by defensive backs, a pick by a linebacker, let alone two in the game, is not a common sight.
“I was simply watching the quarterback’s eyes,” Blake said.
After surrendering the early lead, Gunn further lost its momentum on an interception by the Spartans’ Kevin Metsers. But the Gunn defense - which came up big the entire game - held strong, forcing a punt on which Kevin Gordon made a nice return to give his team good field position near midfield. The Titans then quickly got on the scoreboard with a 41-yard strike from quarterback Doug Campbell to Gordon. The failed conversion kick allowed the Spartans to hang on at 7-6, but the lead was tenuous.
After Gordon dropped a potential 61-yard touchdown pass from Campbell early in the second quarter, the Titans’ ground game began to take control behind the power running of Darius Johnson. Five plays after the burly 227-pound fullback ripped off a 21-yarder to put his team in scoring position, Campbell sneaked into the end zone from a yard out to put Gunn ahead for good.
As the Titans’ front line started to wear down its counterpart in the second half, Johnson continued to pile up yardage. He took his team on an eight-play, 63-yard march by carrying five times for 51 yards before Gordon scored from 3 yards away, The extra point pushed the lead to 21-7.
After Blake made the first of his two picks to open the fourth, Johnson put the game out of reach with a 10-yard TD bolt to culminate a 58-yard drive. He led all rushers in the game with 159 yards on 19 carries.
With its offense sputtering, the most potent scoring threat for Mountain View turned out to be the Harris. After the Titans went up 14-7, Harris almost broke another kickoff return, getting stopped by the last special-teams defender at Mountain View’s 45.
The Gunn coaching staff was so concerned about Harris that it elected to execute a pooch kick after the Titans scored to make it 21-7. The kick was weak, aiding a return that reached the Spartans’ 44. Three plays later, Blake ended Mountain View’s scoring chance with his pilfering act.
Winning coach Sam Picture credited his injury-depleted line for the victory.
“We won the battle at the trenches,” he said. “If we can get it done in the front, we can do just about anything.”
He praised linemen Paul Bonini, Jason Hikida, Adam Juratovac, Harry Kurland, Kameron McGee and David Whitley for their two-way performances.
Picture was also pleased with the efficiency of Campbell, who completed 13 of 19 passes for 178 yards, with a touchdown and an interception.
Campbell’s counterpart Francis Papica had comparable statistics (12 of 18 for 148 yards ) but the two interceptions he threw were damaging.
Papica’s inability to connect with his leading receiver Andrew Czajkowski was puzzling, if not equally costly. Facing single coverage the entire game, the 6-4 pass-catching wizard caught one ball for 15 yards early in the game and had only one more thrown his way the rest of the contest.
“We need to go over our passing scheme,” a perplexed Czajkowski said.
Mountain View head coach Dan Navarro provided little clue to his passing strategy, except to say his team was limited in its air game.
“We were flat and didn’t come to play,” he said. “I think my players forgot to play the game after watching all the hoopla on the field.”
The Spartans host first-place Los Gatos at 2:45 p.m., Friday.
