Football team starts year with 2-0 record

After winning their first game 21-17 against Burlingame on Aug. 31, the Falcons had the momentum going into their second non-league game against the Brahnam Bruins on Sept. 7, where they triumphed in an away game 50-22. 

The Falcons came out to a great start. On the first play from scrimmage, junior quarterback Jonathan Walters passed to senior wide receiver Kyle Dozier, who ran 42 yards to score, giving the Falcons a 7-0 lead. 

The Bruins responded with a touchdown, but missed the extra point. The Falcons quickly drove down to the Bruins’ goal line, but fumbled the ball and turned it back over to the Bruins. However, the Falcons got the ball back and scored on a touchdown pass from Walters to junior wide receiver Thomas Alexander. 

The Bruins once again battled back and scored a touchdown, making the score 14-13. The Falcons scored two more touchdowns touchdowns from Dozier and senior wide receiver Stephen Ruff, ending the half with 28-16 lead over the Bruins.

Going into the third quarter, the Falcons scored three touchdowns in the first five minutes with a touchdown pass to Dozier and two touchdown runs from senior Eric Castronovo. The starters were pulled out of the game and the Falcons ended the game ahead 50-22. 

In their first game against the Burlingame Panthers, Saratoga won in incredible fashion with a miraculous fourth-quarter comeback led by Walters.

The game started slowly for the Falcons, who fell behind 3-0 in the first half after a Burlingame field goal. Following halftime, however, Saratoga proved to be a different team.

On their first offensive drive, the Falcons took the ball downfield and capped off the drive with a touchdown run from senior running back Bryson Yates. The defense, which played well for most of the game, held its ground on the next series and gave the ball back to the Falcons by making the Panthers punt.

On their next series, the Falcons ran a trick play, which resulted in a touchdown pass from Dozier to Ruff.

However, the Panthers stayed in the game and with two quick fourth-quarter scores took the lead 17-14.

In the end, the Falcons’ defense played tough and got the ball back to the offense with four minutes remaining. From their own 10-yard line, the Falcons’ offense led by Walters drove down the field 90 yards, and with a touchdown pass from Walters to junior receiver Davis Berryhill, took the lead 21-17 with two minutes remaining.

The Panthers tried to drive down the field to win the game, but the tough Falcons’ defense forced a four and out, which ended the game.

With this win, the Falcons broke a five-year streak of losing the first game of each season, but there are still things that the team can improve on.

“It’s pretty great to break the first-game losing streak, though I think the game was way closer than it should have been,” junior defensive tackle Mike Fitzimmons said. “I think we need to work on and improve our tackling and blocking.”

Walters, after the game against Burlingame, was named Mercury News’s Athlete of the Week because of his stellar performance in the first week.

Ruff was pleased with the early wins, but still wants the team to stay focused and not let their confidence get the best of them.

“It feels good to win the first two games, but we have only been playing non league teams who are not like Los Gatos, Palo Alto, Wilcox, or Milipitas so we need to work a lot harder to get to where we want to be,” Ruff said.

The Falcons will try to win one more nonleague game at home against Monta Vista on Sept. 21 before they begin to play in the extremely competitive DeAnza League.

“When we get into league we only need to win a certain amount of games to make playoffs,” Dozier said. “We just want to win as many games in preseason as possible.”