Friday, Sep. 03, 2010

JV football: Panthers take one

School's football openers result in JV loss, frosh win

The Pacheco High football teams split their two games against American Canyon Saturday, in the first athletic events ever for both schools.

The Pacheco junior varsity team fell 32-21, while the freshman team emerged victorious, 16-0.

The Panther freshmen started the scoring on their first drive when Cruz Zamora booted a 30-yard field goal.

Zamora spent the day amassing rushing yards behind a powerful offensive line, though he didn't get into the end zone.

"The offensive line played extremely well, and Cruz Zamora put on a show all on his own," coach Kyle Sanches said.

Pacheco's first touchdown came when Anthony Gonzalez fumbled on the goal line and Brandon Lippert jumped on the fumble.

Gonzalez made up for his fumble in the fourth quarter when he scored on a 10-yard touchdown run.

"Defense played pretty well. We had two turnovers on defense," Sanches said. "Our offense ran the ball the entire first quarter."

The Panthers played a ball-control game and dominated with the run game.

"The kids played hard. They busted their butts," Sanches said. "It was a good performance on both sides of the ball. Our running game definitely dominated the game."

The JV team started well when Rene Ireta returned the opening kickoff.

"It got everybody pretty pumped up to start the game," coach John Wenig said. "Then they returned one right back and blew the wind out of our sails."

With penalties hindering both teams, American Canyon took a lead into halftime.

"The main thing is just we had a lot of rookie mistakes, guys coming out when they should be in," Wenig said. "But they played hard. When things were going against them, they didn't fold and throw in the towel."

With a lot of players playing both offense and defense, the Panthers wore down in the second half.

"It's a good learning experience," Wenig said. "It was our first live competition against another school, so there's plenty to build on."

Enterprise reporter David Witte can be reached by phone at 388-6565 or by e-mail at sports@losbanosenterprise.com