After suffering a devastating 35-21 home loss to the Gunn Vikings on Oct. 11, the Falcons’ hopes of staying undefeated in league play ended.
“After the loss, our team had to recuperate and look back to focusing on the details during practice,” senior wide receiver George Bian said.
However, coming off their bye week, the team was able to grab a commanding 48-14 victory against Los Altos on Oct. 25.
With this win, the Falcons are tied for first place in the El Camino League with Gunn and Homestead with a league record of 3-1. The Falcons will face the 1-7 Lynbrook Vikings for their senior night game tonight and the 3-5 Cupertino Pioneers on the road next Friday. The Falcons are confident they can beat Cupertino, which sits fourth in league standings, and Lynbrook, which has scored 27 points all season while giving up 333 points.
“I think we have a great shot to win our last two games based on the league rankings, and if we win out, we are probably going to make it to CCS playoffs,” Bian said.
To kick off the game at Foothill College against the Los Altos Eagles for the Eagles’ senior night game, junior wide receiver Ryan Gilligan caught a touchdown pass from senior quarterback Payton Stokes, but junior kicker Fabian Alvarado missed the point-after kick. Los Altos was able to answer and took an 8-6 lead after punching in a two-point conversion. That was the only lead the Eagles had all night. The Falcons controlled the rest of the game.
To close out the first quarter, junior running back Tyler Chaffin ran in a 2-yard touchdown to put the Falcons up 13-8 after a successful extra-point kick by Alvarado. From there on out, the Falcons kept running up the score.
During the second quarter, Stokes tossed two long passing touchdowns. One went for 45 yards to senior wide receiver Tyler Prowse, and the other went for 37 yards to Bian. By halftime, the Falcons led 27-8.
More Falcons were able to get in on the action during the second half. Senior running back Hayden Cranz rushed for a one-yard touchdown and junior wide receiver Kelly Huesby caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from Stokes, bringing the score to 41-8.
While the Eagles were able to score again in the fourth quarter, they failed on their two-point conversion attempt, making the score 41-14. Stokes closed out the game with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Huesby, ending the rout of the Eagles 48-14.
Stokes ended the night with 356 yards passing and five touchdowns paired with 62 yards on the ground.
Senior defensive lineman Tyler Ouchida said the Falcon need to play solid on offense and defense in the remaining league games.
“Overall, we are solid on both sides of the ball,” Ouchida said. “We just need to be diligent during practice and fix our little mistakes.”
If they do qualify, the team expects to face much tougher matchups in CCS.
“We are preparing by looking to get a little bit better each and every week until the end,” Bian said.
