Friday night in the Monterey Bay-Gabilan Division, Gilroy celebrated its homecoming with many fans in the stands and fireworks in the air as Monterey came to down.
However the festive atmosphere was spoiled by the visiting Toreadores, 54-21.
Scoring the first touchdown of the night, Blake Flores of Monterey recovered a fumble and ran it in. Immediately after, Gilroy responded with a touchdown of its own when Brendan Holler scored on a 53-yard pass reception.
By the end of the first quarter, Monterey was up 21-7 and increased its lead to 31-7 by halftime.
Monterey quarterback James Hill scored on runs of 2 and 1 yards. Also, Logan Hunter made a 45-yard field goal and Toreador receiver Donte Murphy caught a 7-yard touchdown pass and had another score, as well.
Both teams managed a touchdown in the third quarter as Gilroy continued to trail, 38-14.
Interceptions plagued Gilroy, including a pick for a touchdown by Tatum Tucker.
"All of our turnovers and fumbles hurt us," Holler said. "(There were) a lot of interceptions.”
Up next for Gilroy (1-5, 0-2 in MBL-Gabilan) is host Alvarez.
“We plan to play hard and try to get another win,” said Holler.
Said Monterey tight end Tony Velitchkov: "We brought it to them and we executed pretty well on offense toward the end. We were able to come out with a victory. I made some nice catches, but I should have caught that other one. We’ll look back at that later and work on it.”
Hill complimented the Toreador offensive line.
“We executed the game plan that was set out for us," he said. "I just ran behind the hole that my line made. Linemen like Blake Flores and John Irving were making huge holes so that’s all I could do.”
Monterey (4-1, 1-1) hosts San Benito next Friday night.
"I know the coaches are going to come up with a good game plan so that we can go take it to San Benito,” said Velitchkov.
