FELTON, CA — It really was a tale of two halves for the San Lorenzo Valley High football team against visiting rival Scotts Valley Saturday in both teams’ Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League opener.
In the first half SLV only managed 65 yards of total offense including minus-5 rushing yards on eight carries.
The second half was a totally different story.
SLV ran for 286 yards on 17 carries and two touchdowns and shut out Scotts Valley in the second half en route to a 33-8 victory over the rival Falcons.
“It was a great joint effort,” said SLV second-year coach Dave Poetzinger. “This was a group that desperately wanted to get this done. The intensity was there throughout.”
This is the first year that SLV (5-1, 1-0) has beaten Scotts Valley (1-5, 0-1) since 2010 in the famed Mud Bowl game.
After giving up a Troy Menna eight-yard touchdown run on the Falcons’ first offensive possession of the game, SLV held Scotts Valley to zero points the rest of the way including three separate trips to the red zone.
“It was the best week of practice we had all year,” Poetzinger said. “The intensity was there in practice and I knew once we got into this game that the intensity would be there.”
Scotts Valley went into halftime up 8-6 over SLV.
In the second half it wasn’t just the run game that was firing on all cylinders it was the defense.
The Cougars' pass rush gave Falcons senior quarterback Jake Lobo fits all game as the senior completed only 11-of-24 pass attempts for 112 yards and was sacked four times.
SLV held Lobo to only 30 yards on 5 of 14 completions in the second half and Menna was limited to just 49 yards rushing on 13 carries.
Jake Hampton recorded 2½ sacks of Lobo and senior Brett Bukowski added another.
After forcing Scotts Valley to punt on its first offensive possession of the second half SLV got its first lead of the game when senior quarterback Isaac Newberry led the Falcons on a 12-play, 76-yard drive capped by his second touchdown pass of the game on an 11-yard fade rout to Shaden Pias.
Newberry finished the game with 124 yards passing completing 9-of-18 attempts with two touchdowns and an interception.
A failed two-point conversion attempt gave SLV a 12-8 lead with five minutes go to in the third but the Cougars would quickly add it to their lead.
Six plays later SLV forced a Lobo fumble and linemen Jared Trader picked up the loose ball and scampered 56 yards for the score.
“I was going to fall on it but I saw one of the offensive linemen fall over and I just got it and Jake Hampton and Ryan Williams gave me a huge block,” said Trader. “That’s why I was able to take it back; it was really cool.”
From there the Cougars ground game took over.
On two of SLV’s next three offensive possessions the Cougars scored on 80+ yard touchdown runs. Brighton Hart scampered 85 yards for a touchdown and two possessions later Nate Gentry raced 95 yards for a touchdown.
Gentry finished with a game-high 155 yards on 11 carries and Hart added 99 on seven carries in the win.
“It was just the mindset we were not going to lose to them,” said Newberry, a three-year varsity starting quarterback. “We preached it all week. We were going to leave it all on the field and that’s what we did.”
Scotts Valley will look to pick up its first league win of the season next Friday when it hosts Soquel (2-4, 0-1) at 7:30 p.m. It will also be homecoming for the Falcons.
For seniors like Trader, Newberry and Gentry finally beating Scotts Valley is something they’ll remember for a long time.
“It’s great it’s bragging rights,” said Trader. “I know all the kids so it’s great to say we beat you. That’s it, five years from now we can great game we beat you — it’s really great to say that.”
SLV will face Santa Cruz (4-2, 0-1) next Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Soquel High and it will give the Cougars another chance to show that they are for real this season a year after going 1-9 last season.
“We are still trying to prove ourselves,” said Trader. “Obviously we are 5-1 but we are not done yet. We still have a lot of people to prove wrong and quite a lot of people that doubt us.”
