Down 34-33 with 42 seconds left in the Division IV Central Coast Section football championship game and with one timeout remaining, Mountain View High head coach Tim Lugo had a decision to make following a Spartans touchdown: try to tie it with an extra point and likely send the game into overtime, or go for the win with a two-point conversion.
For Lugo, the call was easy to make after discussions earlier in the week with his coaching staff around potential game situations.
“We had talked about all week if we knew if we got in this situation, there was no doubt in our mind we were going for the win,” Lugo said.
The Spartans ran a toss sweep right to running back Viliami Sekona, who also had a potential pass option to tight end Liam Tyler, but Sekona did not have enough time to pass and was unable to score while fighting to run it in. Palo Alto recovered the Mountain View onside kick afterward to win 34-33.
“They did a really nice job overloading that side when he caught the toss,” Lugo said. “The guy we wanted to throw it to was open. He just didn’t have time to catch the ball and throw it.”
Saturday’s game at San Jose City College proved to be a test of resilience for both teams, with Mountain View (6-7) and Palo Alto (8-5) trading touchdown blows before the last-minute heartbreaker. The Spartans were in their first CCS championship game since 1995, when Mountain View lost to Los Gatos in the Division III game. The last time Mountain View won a CCS championship was in 1975 under coach Rich Ryerson when the team beat Monta Vista.
“It’s tough, but I feel like we gave it our all,” senior wide receiver Lex Silver said. “Sucks that it’s over. I don’t feel like we left stuff out there.”
Lugo said he was proud of the team for getting to just a few plays from a championship after a season of adversity, from injuries and playing in the rugged Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division. The Spartans went 0-5 in the division but won against rival Los Altos in their final regular season game to ensure a playoff spot. The team then beat Burlingame in the quarterfinals 49-21 and won against Branham 38-34 in the CCS semifinals a year after losing to Branham in the same playoff scenario, with Lugo lauding the spirit the team had shown throughout the year and sticking together.
“This is the most resilient group of kids I’ve been around,” he said.
The Spartans took a 20-14 lead into halftime, thanks to three Palo Alto turnovers and a strong running game.
Mountain View had its first touchdown drive with 4:41 left in the first with an 11-play drive, with Sekona scoring on a 5-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Kevin Conway to tie the game at 7. Following a touchdown from Palo Alto with 5:13 left in the second quarter, Mountain View fed the ball to senior running back Arturo Hernandez for a 10-yard score with 4:10 left to make it 14-13 after a missed extra point. After a fumble recovery by Mountain View’s Gavin De Guzman near midfield, the Spartans ran the ball down to the 4, where Hernandez added another touchdown with a minute left in the second. With Palo Alto moving the ball down to the Mountain View 5-yard line and on the verge of scoring at the end of the half, Sekona was able to tip and intercept a pass from Palo Alto quarterback Declan Packer with 7 seconds left to end the drive and preserve the lead.
“We got after the ball and punched it out,” Lugo said of the turnovers. “It kept us in the game, and we were hoping that would be enough to put us over the top, and unfortunately it wasn’t.”
The third quarter saw both teams commit turnovers, with Mountain View’s Alex Bocchieri intercepting the ball when Palo Alto was on the verge of another score. However, the Vikings were able to string together two touchdown drives in the early fourth quarter to take a 27-20 lead. With the momentum against them and a fourth-and-4 on their 35-yard line, the Spartans coaching staff called a trick play it last ran in week five against Wilcox. A seemingly simple jet sweep run to Sekona surprised everyone on the Vikings when Sekona stopped running and threw the ball to a wide-open Silver for a 65-yard touchdown.
“I think I blocked for a few seconds, and then once he runs by me, getting off my block, (and) run upfield and lob it to me,” Silver said. “It worked out.”
Lugo had kept the play in his back pocket throughout most of the season, with he and his staff of the same mind when he turned to them to make the call on the sideline.
“They put their thumbs up because they were already going to make the call,” Lugo said. “We were totally on the same page at that moment.”
Palo Alto’s Jeremiah Madrigal scored on a 39-yard touchdown run with 3:46 left before Mountain View’s Hernandez answered with 42 seconds left to make it 34-33 before the failed two-point conversion.
Lugo said the team fully expected to win, making the loss even tougher. In the aftermath, he delivered his final message of the season to the team.
“I told them I loved them and how important they were to me,” he said of his team talk.
