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Heading into a rematch with Sacred Heart Prep, a team that beat Scotts Valley High School during the regular season, the playoff-bound Falcons have a new weapon on their side: Brotherly love.
It just so happens that, to provide experience to promising junior varsity football players and to bolster the varsity team’s post-season roster, Falcon Head Coach Louie Walters has added five JV players who are the younger brothers of players on the varsity squad.
Varsity running back Eric Murai will be joined by his younger brother Christian, Patrick Marigonda will get a chance to rough up his younger brother Peter; Thomas Flebbe will now be tackling fodder for his older brother and Co-Captain Patrick, Matt Becker gets to tee off against his younger brother Joey, and Garrett and William Johnston will square off against each other.
“This should be just another day at the office,” said Patrick Flebbe about having his younger brother on varsity. “We will try to look after them but there are no promises,” he said with a smirk.
But all the players are more concerned about their first round of the Central Coast Section playoffs.
The No. 5 seeded Falcons will face No. 4 Sacred Heart Prep in the first round. Sacred Heart defeated the Falcons in the third pre-season game 31-15 in Atherton. Since that loss, the 8-2 Falcons fell only to Aptos, the eventual Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League champion.
The Falcons are led by Colin Corbella, a senior running back, who leads the SCCAL with 1,714 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns. Fellow tail back Victor Passanisi has added another 595 yards rushing behind an offensive line that has opened holes for the Falcon backs.
Quarterback Jack Pasquini has thrown for 1,112 yards and 17 touchdowns with 5 interceptions and will lead the maturing offense against the Gators at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19 at the Sacred Heart Prep field in Atherton.
“This is gonna be a tough game for us,” Falcon Head Coach Louie Walters said. “While it is a huge chance for some payback, we have to be on our game to come out on top in this one.”
Sacred Heart is led by a balanced offense led by quarterback Jack Larson who has 1,167 yards passing and 13 touchdowns with three interceptions. His primary target, Pat Bruni has 45 catches for 820 yards and six touchdowns. Four running backs have more than 45 carries for the Gators, led by Tyler McCool with 725 yards on 94 carries.
