Football: Milpitas Drops DeAnza Bout Against Wilcox

Wilcox 35, Milpitas 17

The Star: Wilcox quarterback Nick Morehead tossed two deep touchdowns strikes, both in the second quarter, spurring a furious second-quarter surge by the home team. Morehead finished the game with 190 yards passing, two touchdowns via the air and another on the ground.

The Turning Point:  Two costly interceptions thrown on back-to-back drives led to 14 straight points by the Chargers. A narrow 7-3 Wilcox lead going into the quarter, turned into a commanding 28-3 lead at the halftime intermission.

The Quote: "It's kind of been the story of our season so far," Milpitas head coach Kelly King said. "We do some things well, but we're still making way too many mistakes."

What's Next? Milpitas hosts first-place Palo Alto High next Friday.

Bottom Line: Five turnovers doomed the Trojans hopes of snatching up an important league victory on the road. Four interceptions and one lost fumble led to 21 points for the Chargers.

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After missing a couple deep throws early, Wilcox High-San Jose quarterback Nick Morehead sat out the next offensive series to try to regroup.

The senior southpaw's time to reflect paid off in a big way as Morehead came back into the lineup, threw two deep touchdown passes and ran in one more for good measure. That led to a 35-17 Wilcox victory over the Milpitas High football team Friday night in San Jose.

The win halted a three-game losing streak for Wilcox.

"We wanted to come out and try and mix things up tonight," Morehead said. "It was big that we were able to throw the ball well. It took a lot of pressure off our running game."

A week removed from a hard-fought 9-3 win on homecoming night over Homestead, poor tackling and a rash of turnovers put Milpitas in a major hole late in the first half.

Things started out swimmingly for the Trojans, scoring three points off a 30-yard field goal on their opening possession of the game.

Wilcox answered with a long drive that pushed deep into Milpitas territory. The ending left a bad taste in the mouth of the Milpitas defense.

Chargers running back Michael Roman, who carried the ball 26 times and rushed for 139 yards in the win, stormed through the middle just trying to get whatever yardage he could muster on a fourth and short play.

The initial surge was stopped by the Trojans defense, but the ball carrier never hit the ground.

Moments later, Roman raced into the end zone for the 17-yard touchdown.

"We're still building," Milpitas head coach Kelly King said. "One of these nights we'll turn it on. The night we do, we'll be a very dangerous football team."

Two costly second-quarter interceptions thrown on back-to-back drives led to 14 straight points by the Chargers.

A narrow 7-3 Wilcox lead going into the quarter turned into a commanding 28-3 lead at the halftime intermission.

Some teams may have packed it in for the night and lived to fight another day, but Trojans return man Dela Harlley had other ideas.

Harlley caught the second-half kickoff at his own one before jetting 99 yards toward the other end of the field.

The sensational return was the first of two big plays made by the Trojans 6-foot-2 senior.

Harlley also returned an interception 49 yards later on in the third quarter, unleashing a strong stiff arm to push away one opponent and a pretty spin move to shake free of another during the play.

The interception return ended at the one-yard line.

Junior quarterback Tony Sauceda snuck in for the touchdown one play later to make the score 35-17 late in the third quarter.

The game ended with the same tally.

Milpitas will have its hands full next week. Palo Alto High, which dismantled a strong Los Gatos team 42-0 Friday night, comes to town with a spotless record in tow.

"We're not going to quit," King said. "We plan on giving Palo Alto a game and doing what we need to do to win the football game."

Milpitas is now 3-2-1 overall and 1-2 in Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division play.

Wilcox improves to 3-3 overall and 1-2 in league play with a meeting against Santa Clara next up on the schedule.

Stats………..

Wilcox  7 21 7 0 — 35

Milpitas 3 0 14 0 — 17

First quarter

M—Ramiro Ceja 30-yard field goal, 9:57 left

W—Michael Roman 17 run (Tyler Barraclough kick), 5:35 left

Second quarter

W-  Roman 1 run,(Barraclough kick), 7:15 left

W- Jordan Gibson 51 pass from Nick Morehead (Barraclough kick), 4:43 left

W- Conor Dunn 53 pass from Morehead (Barraclough kick), 3:03 left

Third quarter

M-Dela Harlley 99-yard kick return (PAT blocked), 11:46 left

W- Morehead 5 run (Barraclough kick), 7:52 left

M- Tony Sauceda 1 run (Bryant Canada 2 pass from Sauceda) 3:49 left

Fourth quarter

No Scoring

RUSHING—W, Roman 26-139, Gibson 4-22, Aguilar 1-4, Morehead 8-46, Mitchell 2-11. M, Lockett 3-77, Canada 10-16, Fanua 10-41, Sauceda 4-(-20), McKenzie 3-29.

PASSING—W, Morehead 8-15-1 for 190 yards. M, Sauceda 12-23-4 for 119.

RECEIVING—W, Gibson 3-74, Jones 2-41, Dunn 2-61, Aguilar 1-12.  M, Harlley 1-12, Fanua 3-15, McKenzie  3-28, Dimich 1-10, Lockett 1-6, Rimando 2-48.

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