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Five local teams advance to the semifinals |
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11/22/2001 |
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By Staff |
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Monterey Bay Prep Report |
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11/24/01
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| Bellarmine At Palma
(San Jose City College) |
07:00pm |
| Salinas
At Aragon (Santa Clara High) |
01:00pm |
| Capuchino At Pacific
Grove (Wilcox High) |
07:00pm |
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| Game
Time: |
7:00 |
Location: |
Gilroy High |
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Earlier
This Season |
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Alvarez stunned
Hollister by putting a rare 32-19 hurt on the Balers in
the MBL opener. Eagle quarterback Manuel Miranda has his
best game of the season, completing 7 of 9 passes for
123 yards and 2 touchdowns. Galen Perry chipped in 91
yards and a touchdown on just 9 carries. The Alvarez
defense limited the vaunted Hollister rushing attack to
126 yards, 72 yards of which came on a Armando Larez
touchdown run early in the first quarter. |
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Notes |
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| If
this were a boxing match, the marquee would read "Alvarez
Vs Hollister II - The Revenge". Hollister
has plenty of motivating factors leading into this game.
Not only was the early season loss to Alvarez a first
for Hollister on the field since the 1999 playoffs, but
Baler quarterback Nick Buzzetta was ejected from the
first game for collecting two unsportsmanlike conduct
penalties, keeping him out of the following game against
Live Oak. Additionally, the Balers were flagged 12 times
for 135 penalty yards in the first Alvarez contest.
Overcoming the Balers, who are on a late season roll,
will be difficult for an Alvarez team that has been
forced to deal with some off-the-field distractions the
past week. Hollister chewed up and spit out first round
playoff opponent Piedmont Hills, rushing for 474 yards
and 6 touchdowns while limiting Piedmont Hills to just
50 yards on the ground. Alvarez scratched out a 17-7
victory over Leigh without the services of top running
back Galen Perry. This game does guarantee one thing -
that a Monterey Bay League team will play for the CCS D2
title. |
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Bellarmine
(8-3) At Palma
(10-1) |
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| Game
Time: |
7:00 |
Location: |
San Jose City
College |
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Last
Year |
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Palma hung on for
a 7-6 CCS D1 first round playoff victory over Bellarmine.
Palma marched down in the first quarter and scored on a
Nick Noroian 2 yard scoring plunge, but the Chieftains
were held scoreless the remainder of the game despite
moving the ball well against the Bellarmine defense. A
key Palma fumble inside the Bellarmine 5 yard line kept
the Chieftains from breaking the game open. A last-ditch
25 yard touchdown pass with 2:08 remaining in the game
had Bellarmine thinking overtime, but the ensuing extra
point sailed wide left, securing the first of three
Chieftain nail-biter playoff victories that eventually
led to the CCS D1 title.
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Notes |
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| The
Palma defense gave up an uncharacteristic 233 yards
rushing to Milpitas in last week's 1st round playoff
victory, and now face the daunting task of slowing
Bellarmine's Jarred Belser, one of the premier
running backs in the CCS. Belser came into last
weeks playoff game against Valley Christian averaging
124 yards rushing per game, and promptly broke off an 86
yard touchdown run to put the Bell's up early 10-0.
Belser had some big games this season, but his effort in
a 34-0 romp of Oakland stands out. In that game, Belser
ran for 167 yards and 3 touchdowns on just four carries.
Bellarmine has a great football tradition, and earlier
this year the Bells became only the 13th school in the
state to record 500 wins. One thing Bellarmine has been susceptible
to on defense is the run. In a regular-season ending
victory over Riordan, the Bells allowed a whopping 350
yards rushing, including a 230 yard/4 TD effort to
Riordan star running back Jeremy Konaris. |
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| Game
Time: |
1:00 |
Location: |
Santa Clara High |
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Last Year |
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Teams did not
play. |
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Notes |
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| Both
teams took two very different routes to the D2
semifinals. Salinas rolled up over 500 yards rushing in
a 47-0 pasting of Wilcox, while Aragon rallied from a 20
point deficit to nip Gilroy 27-26. Gilroy was able
to move the ball up and down the field against the Dons,
but 3 huge turnovers in the second half turned the tide
in the favor of #1 seed Aragon. Trailing 26-13 in the
third quarter, Aragon's Toa Tau returned a fumble 16
yards for a touchdown. Gilroy quarterback Jesus Gaona
was intercepted twice in the red zone on go ahead drives
in the fourth quarter. The first priority for the
Cowboys will be to stop Aragon running back Manase Tonga,
the section's top running back. Tonga ran for 133 yards
and 2 touchdowns against Gilroy, and on the season has
compiled 1762 rushing yards, tops in the section.
Salinas will also have to deal with dangerous kick
return specialist and wide receiver David Rosas, who
toasted the Gilroy secondary for 8 receptions, 131 yards
and a touchdown. Considering the fact that the Salinas
defense surrendered just 81 yards to Wilcox last week,
they should be more than up to the task. |
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| Game
Time: |
7:00 |
Location: |
Wilcox High |
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Last Year |
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Teams did not
play. |
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Notes |
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| Both
teams are in uncharted waters - playing for a berth in
the CCS finals. Capuchino won its first CCS playoff game in
school history last week, and Pacific Grove won a
playoff game for only the second time since 1972.
Pacific Grove hopes to re-ignite an offense that has not
scored a touchdown in its last 2 games. Two Brooke
Emanuel field goals and two Phil Shin punt returns have
accounted for all of Pacific Grove's scoring in the two
game span. Capuchino had 5 running backs in double-digit
yardage in a 31-28 overtime win over Carmel. Moses Kato, Steven Baxter, Josh Finau and
Ben Neilsen all figure prominently in the
ground-oriented Mustang attack. The Breakers must also
contend with emerging Capuchino quarterback Chris Arbic,
who touched up the Carmel secondary for 187 yards and
two touchdowns while hitting 6 different receivers. Look
for Pacific Grove to take advantage of a Mustang
secondary that itself allowed 177 yards and 3 touchdowns
to Carmel quarterback Pat Johnston. |
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