Falcons’ season comes to an end with CCS loss to Pioneer

After beating Palo Alto to make the Division III CCS playoffs, the Falcons’ season ended with a 56-21 away loss to No. 1 seeded Pioneer High School on Nov. 21l.

“We definitely did not play our best, which was a disappointment,” senior wide receiver Joey Medeiros said, “but we played our hardest and gave it all we had so we can’t be disappointed with that.”.

Going into the Pioneer game, head coach Tim Lugo said that he felt if the team executed as well as it did against Palo Alto, they had a chance to win.

“It didn’t come together for some reason and that’s my fault for not having us ready to play,” Lugo said.

The Falcons were put into a 7-0 hole when Pioneer scored on the game’s opening drive. On the next drive, the Falcons were forced to punt and Pioneer capitalized on the opportunity with a 41-yard touchdown pass from senior Zach Silva quarterback to junior wide receiver Elijah Roberts.

After being down 14-0, the Falcons came fighting back midway in the second quarter when senior running back Ken Wu rushed in the endzone with a six-yard run.

However, Pioneer answered right back with its own touchdown and scored again when Saratoga’s punt was blocked, making the score 28-7.

Straight from kickoff, the Falcons started to move the ball effectively getting all the way to Pioneer’s 20-yard line. The Falcons had to give the ball back after failing to convert on fourth down. From there, Pioneer scored another touchdown when Silva found Roberts in the endzone with 4.8 seconds left in the half.

After halftime, Pioneer scored again before the Falcons answered with a 16-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Will Liddle to junior wide receiver Vinny Faylor.

Pioneer went into the fourth quarter with a 56-14 lead after scoring another touchdown near the end of the third quarter.

The Falcons ended the scoring with a touchdown from senior running back Jordan Vogel’s on a two-yard run that was set up by Wu’s 47-yard kickoff return.

Despite the first-round CCS loss, Lugo is proud of ther the season that the Falcons had considering they had the youngest team in the De Anza League.

“We made the CCS playoffs and finished fourth in league with a team that started six sophomores, one of them at quarterback while no other team in our league started more than two,” Lugo said.  “We set a goal at the beginning of the year to make CCS and beat one of the ‘big four’ and we accomplished both.” (The big four include Palo Alto, Los Gatos, Milpitas and Wilcox.)

The Falcons this year were led by a committed group of seniors, and it will be difficult to fill in their shoes, according to Lugo.

Among the key losses to graduation are Wu, Medeiros, Teddy Rothschild, Austin Bakke, Evan Lindeman and Alex Hansen.

“We have some big holes to fill, but I think our underclassman learned a lot about good leadership and how far it can take a team,” Lugo said.