FOOTBALL: Trojans Defeat Saratoga for Fourth Straight Win

The Milpitas High football team continued it’s impressive season with a 31-17 victory over Saratoga High-Saratoga on Friday night.

While it wasn’t their prettiest win of the year, the Trojans were able to overcome turnovers and penalties to improve their record to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in league play.

“We came out a little slow,” said senior quarterback Tony Sauceda. “We aren’t too happy with the way we played, but we’ll take the win. Defense came up big for us, as they have all season.”

Early in the first quarter, Sauceda put his team on the board first with a 28-yard field goal to give Milpitas a 3-0 lead. Senior running back Sammy Fanua added to the Trojans’ lead with a two-yard run to put the visiting team up by 10.

Neither team registered another point for the rest of the first half as both teams struggled to hold onto to the ball. Milpitas Coach Kelly King said his team might have been suffering from a lack of focus heading into the game.

“We didn’t have that great of practices this week and I think that carried over into tonight,” King said. “We were coming off of wins against two great teams and I think we just played this game down too much.”

Whatever problems the Trojans had in the first half were solved in the final two quarters of the game as the team’s offense held onto the ball better and the defense held strong once again.

Touchdowns by sophomore Ronnie Reed, senior Rodney McKenzie, and junior Brandon Sualua in the second put the Trojans up for good as the team earned it’s fourth win in a row.

While the season is not over yet, Milpitas has shown huge improvements since last season. Last year’s squad was filled with players who had never suited up in a varsity game before, and other younger players who were still new to the sport.

With more playing time under their belts and better team chemistry, this season’s team has shown how far they’ve come in the last year.

“We’re more of a family this year,” said senior Jordan Lockett. “Last year we weren’t as tight and now we’re like brothers. We just fight hard together.”

With two games remaining in the season, the Trojans are looking to close out the season strong and head into the playoffs on a high note.

According to Sauceda, he and his teammates aren’t getting too far ahead of themselves and only thinking about one game at a time.

“Our goal is the championship,” Sauceda said. “We’re trying not to think about playoffs right now because we have two more games left in the season. But we have two more steps to take and we’re going to take those steps."