Football: Miramonte Survives Jitters, Tigers in Win

Opening night is always fraught with errors and miscues, whether or not it is on the stage or on the football field. As the Miramonte High football team made its season debut the Matadors displayed plenty of opening night jitters.

But by the time the final whistle had sounded on Friday night, host Miramonte had settled down and cruised to a 21-7 victory over Analy in the season opener for both teams.

"Both teams played a little tight (tonight)," said Matadors head coach John Wade moments after the victory."The kids just had to settle down."

After a sluggish first half that produced little offense aside from a one-yard scoring run by John Coupin on the Matadors opening drive of the game, Miramonte came out and took control of the game in the third quarter. Coupin literally carried his team to the win, scoring his second touchdown of the game with just under seven minutes left in the third quarter on a six-yard plunge through the Tigers interior defense.

"(Coupin) really had it going tonight," Wade said. "He's a big kid and he is really hard to defend against when he gets it going."

Coupin carried the ball 12 times for 99 yards to go along with his two scores and set up the third Miramonte touchdown just by being a threat to run. With Analy's defense close to the line to try to stop Coupin, Matador quarterback Ross Anderson fired a strike on second-and-five from the 30 yard line to wideout Anthony Piganelli near the 10 yard line.

Piganelli shook off two would-be tacklers and dove into the endzone, giving Miramonte a 21-0 advantage with three minutes left in the third quarter that all but sealed the game as the Tigers offense never got on track until too late.

The Matadors appeared ready to turn the game into a rout as they drove 49 yards on eight plays to the Tigers' 17 but Piganelli was not able to leap high enough to haul in an Anderson pass in the endzone with eight minutes left in the game. Piganelli then pushed a 36-yard field goal attempt to the left as the Matadors went away empty-handed but still up 21.

Analy responded with a 10-play drive that covered 80 yards in just under four minutes as Cooper Maloney dove in from two yards out to deny the Matadors the shutout. It was the only series the Tigers put together against the Matadors, who sacked Analy quarterback Jake Zanutto three times for minus-33 yards. Zanutto finished the game 15-of-26 for 133 yards with most of his damage coming from wideout Julian Titus-Patino's six-catch, 92-yard effort. Maloney had 89 yards on 13 carries to highlight an otherwise bad night for Analy.

With Coupin chewing up the Tigers defense, he added two catches for 19 yards, Anderson only attempted 17 passes, completing nine for 102 yards and was sacked twice. Anderson also carried the ball 10 times for 82 yards. Piganelli was the leading receiver with three catches for 54 yards.

But despite his team's opening night success, Wade still saw much that needed improving.

"It's a great opening night win, the kids played hard and enjoyed it," Wade said. "But we overthrew a couple of passes that could have made things a little easier, we need to make tackles and cut down on the penalties."

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Miramonte 21, Analy 7

Analy  0 0 0 0—7
Monte Vista 7 0 14 0—21

Scoring summary
4:30, 1st. M – Coupin 1 run (Piganelli kick)

6:53, 3rd. M – Coupin 6 run (Piganelli kick)

2:55, 3rd.. M – Piganelli 30 pass from Anderson (Piganelli kick)

4:36, 4th. A – Maloney 2 run (Galvan kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing (car-yards): M – Coupin 12-99, Anderson 10-82, Honens 3-35, Booze 2-34, Carrillo 4-17, Thatcher 1-6. A – Maloney 13-89, Titus-Patino 2-27, Zanutto 2-2, Silviera 4-0.
Passing (comp-att-yards-ints): M — Anderson 9-17-102-0. A — Zanutto 15-26-133-0.
Receiving (Rec-yards): M – Piganelli 3-54, Coupin 2-19, Pietrykowski 1-13, Booze 1-8, Thatcher 1-8. A- Titus-Patino 6-92, Maher 3-19, Adams 2-16, Maloney 1-6.

Team offense (rushing-passing-total)

Miramonte — 212-102-314

Analy — 118-133-251

Fumbles/lost: M — 0/0; A — 1/0.
Records: Miramonte 1-0, Analy 0-1

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