December 18, 2008

Almaden National Champs

Mustang Pee Wee team wins National Division II championship

By Lisa Karr
Special to the Times

The Almaden Mustang Pee Wee Football team won the Division II Pop Warner National Championship at the Wide World of Sports Center at Disney World Dec. 12, marking the first national championship in Almaden Pop Warner football.

Victory yields a trophy! The Almaden Mustang Pee Wee team celebrate their win of the Division II Pop Warner National Championship.

The Pop Warner Super Bowl was held the week of Dec. 9-12 in Orlando, Fla. where 64 teams from across the nation competed in two divisions and four age groups. The Mustangs got to the Super Bowl by winning the Peninsula Championship 27-6 and then the Pacific Northwest Regional Championship 31-6.

The Mustangs played their first game at the Super Bowl against the undefeated Kahului Ali’i team from Hawaii. These boys were big, strong and well coached. You could hear the hitting up in the stands. Kahului scored on their first drive with an off tackle run to go up 6-0. But, Michael Sandoval blocked their extra point attempt. The Mustangs then took over with Chandler Ramirez scoring a touchdown on a fourth and goal after a nice pass to Erik Sargis caught at the 3-yard line. Travis McCurdy’s PAT put the Mustangs ahead 8-6.

At the start of the second half the Mustangs went on an eight-minute drive but failed to score on a fourth and goal from the 1. As the Kahului team took over on downs the Mustang defense came through with a 2-point safety. The safety put the Mustangs ahead 10-6 with two minutes left in the third quarter.

Quarterback Miles Trudeau takes the snap from Austin Denholm.

The Mustangs controlled the ball most of the second half with key backfield stops by Curt Calomeni, Justin Dunne and Daniel Raley, but offensively could not get the ball into the end zone. As the game moved well into the fourth quarter with only two minutes remaining, the Kahului team took possession of the ball on their own 30. The score was still 10-6 Mustangs.

As the Kahului team began their drive down field, the excitement and tension was almost too much to bear. With a very loud Mustang cheering section doing their best to fire up the team, you could hear “defense, defense” from across the entire sports complex. The Kahului team, with determined running and some long pass plays, brought the ball to the Mustang 25-yard line with just two and a half seconds left. One final pass play would determine who would play for the national championship. As the entire stadium held its breath, a beautiful pass was caught by the Kahului receiver, who was then tackled by Austin Karr at the 10-yard line to end the game. In a come-from-behind, nail-biter victory, the Mustangs earned the chance to play for the national championship.

Justin Dunne dominates on defense.

The championship game was played against the Memorial Park Spartans from Chicago. They were a very fast, undefeated team that demolished their semi-final opponent 26-0. It was an unusually cold, overcast morning in Florida and the game started off rough for the Mustangs with the Spartans running the ball in for a touchdown on the third play of the game.

Once again, the Mustangs would have to rally from behind. With discipline and the “One Team, One Heartbeat, Together Can’t Lose” attitude that brought this team to the championship, the Mustangs went to work. On the Spartans’ next possession the Mustang defense caused a fumble that gave the offense all the opportunity they needed. Led by quarterback Miles Trudeau, the Mustangs went on a 12-play drive that led to their first score.

Just as the PAT was kicked, the clouds moved away and the sun began to shine in more ways than one. It was a magical moment that seemed to energize the team and they never looked back. With consistent kicking and special teams, the Mustangs were able to score and gain field position the rest of the game. Although the Mustang defense has been superb all year and held the Spartans to just three first downs the entire game, it was the offense that put up 30 points in this championship game against a Spartan defense that had given up an average of only 4.7 points per game in their undefeated season. The Mustangs dominated the Spar-tans in a 30-6 championship win.

Chandler Ramirez outruns defenders as he heads toward the goal.

After the victory the team was greeted by a crowd of cheering Mustang fans, numerous camera crews and photographers. After a victory photo with Mickey Mouse and their new national championship trophy, the team was whisked off by Disney World officials to serve as grand marshals in the Main Street Parade at Magic Kingdom where they were cheered on by thousands of people while streamers shot through the air. It was quite a victory celebration for these young men.

The Mustangs ended their season with a 14-1 record. The Mustangs outscored their opponents 313 to 70. The team consists of 24 young men ages 11 and 12.

The members of the championship team (and their jersey numbers) are: Jacob Balistreri 8, Aurmon Bani-Taba 14, Parker Bastian 19, Jeremiah Burnham 16, Cooper Burrill 32, Curt Calomeni 18, Brian Clark 15, Austin Denholm 21, Justin Dunne 25, Matthew Giacobbe 13, Sean Harris 30, Kyle Ishizaki-Cooper 2, Austin Karr 24, Brandon Koehne 29, Lucas Malik 11, Travis McCurdy 7, Jack McGivern 9, Matthew Mohs 4, Jake Pauer 5, Daniel Raley 1, Chandler Ramirez 10, Michael Sandoval 35, Erik Sargis 33 and Miles Trudeau 12. Head coach is Steve Dunne and coaches are Mark Calomeni, Austin Denholm, Mike Karr, Gary McCurdy, Scott Raley, Jeff Ramirez and Paul Sargis.