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Sports

FOOTBALL: Trojans Top Spartans In Opening Round

Milpitas advances to the semi-finals of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs with a 42-33 victory over Mountain View.

 

All season long the football team has only had one goal: winning a championship.

On Friday night, the Trojans crossed their first roadblock on the way to their ultimate goal with a 42-33 victory over Mountain View in the opening round of the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs.

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As it did all season, Milpitas’ defense came up big in the final minutes of the game with a game-ending interception with less than 15 seconds left to play.

With the Spartans threatening on the Trojans’ 41-yard line, senior Justin Lovett picked off Mountain View quarterback Mike Butler, taking the ball back to the 1-yard line and sealing the win for Milpitas.

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“I was playing off my man a little bit,” Lovett said. “But I knew the ball was coming to him and I just waited for it. I just caught it and tried to hold onto the ball.”

The play ended an entertaining second half of football between the two division rivals who combined for 66 points in the final two quarters of play and traded leads three times.

Milpitas used a mixture of running and passing plays to move its way down field and score five touchdowns against Mountain View in the second half.

Senior Jordan Lockett scored two touchdowns during the wild final two frames, including a 90-yard kickoff return touchdown to open the third quarter. Lovett added a 45-yard scoring run and touchdowns from sophomore Squally Canada, and senior Sammy Fanua enabled the Trojans to move onto the second round for the first time since 2009.

But even with the barrage of touchdowns and long offensive drives, it was the Trojans’ defense that stole the show with three interceptions, four sacks and one fumble during the victory.

“You can’t stop our line,” said sophomore quarterback Ronnie Reed. “Our front line is solid. Demarco Leonard and Vita Vea were on point tonight. And we they play like that, no one can stop them. They won the game for us tonight.”

Heading into the night, the Trojans had lost two straight games and looked as though they had lost their confidence. Milpitas Coach Kelly King said his team got back to the basics that had allowed the team to succeed earlier in the year.

“I don’t think we’ve played good football the past three weeks,” King said. “This week we practiced hard and got back to the fundamentals. We got back to our game plan and really stuck to it and tonight it showed.”

The Trojans now must wait for the winner of the No. 1 Serra and No. 8 Wilcox game on Saturday to find out who they will face in the semi-finals.

No matter who the team will face, Lovett said him and his teammates must stay focused on their goal.

“This week, we just need to practice hard,” Lovett said. “We can’t even think about Thanksgiving; just practice and football. We can’t let up.”

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