The King’s Academy Knights are off to their best start in seven years, and the only thing standing in their way from continuing their successful beginning is a team that has yet to win a game this season.
The Knights, fresh from a 48-14 demolition of San Lorenzo Valley last week, will bid to extend their record to 4-0 at home on Oct. 2, 7 p.m., when they play host to the winless Oakland Tech Bulldogs in a non-league encounter.
The last time the Knights began a season 4-0 was in 2008. That year, they ended up winning their first eight games and eventually made it all the way to the semifinals of the Central Coast Section playoffs, led by current Notre Dame receiver and kick returner Amir Carlisle.
While the Knights have outscored their opponents 139-42 (a point differential of plus-97) in their first three games this year, the Bulldogs have been outscored 180-30 (minus-150) while sustaining losses to Swett, El Cerrito, Inderkum and Bishop O’Dowd.
Led by brilliant freshman quarterback Michael Johnson Jr., the Knights topped the 40-point mark for the third straight game in their win over San Lorenzo Valley, despite being held scoreless in the first quarter for the first time this year.
Johnson completed 6 of 10 passes for 265 yards and a pair of touchdowns and added another 73 yards and a TD on six rush attempts.
In King’s first three games this year, Johnson has now accounted for exactly 700 yards of total offense–519 passing, 181 rushing–and eight touchdowns (6 passing, 2 rushing). He has completed 21 of 33 passes (63.6 percent) without suffering an interception, and has a gaudy quarterback rating of 146.8.
After being blanked in the first period, King’s exploded for three quick scores–touchdown passes of 88 and 43 yards from Johnson to Markweese Smith, and a 20-yard dash by Johnson–to start the second quarter. Smith caught four passes on the night for 174 yards, an average of 43.5 yards per reception.
After San Lorenzo Valley got on the scoreboard with a long pass of its own, Maurice Washington III returned the ensuing kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown, giving the Knights a commanding 28-7 halftime lead.
In the second half, Washington, who carried the ball 15 times for 66 yards, scored on two more short runs, and Johnson added a third TD pass, connecting with Paul Majchrowicz for a 57-yard bomb.
Talented placekicker Chris Sielski, just a sophomore, was 5 for 6 on extra point tries.
King’s piled up 412 yards of total offense against San Lorenzo Valley, marking the third straight game the Knights have topped 400 yards.
Leading the way defensively for the unbeaten Knights were Jaret Falkowski (9 tackles), A.J. Dana (7), Boaz Chum (5), Matthew Ramirez (4, 1 fumble recovery), Washington (4), Desmond Guilifari (1 interception), Josiah Maama (1 sack) and Jonathan Cheng (1 sack).
Pioneers roll to win
Racing out to a 21-point first quarter lead behind the passing of quarterback Shawn Dumov, the Cupertino Pioneers ended a two-game winless streak by bombing the Prospect Panthers 41-12.
Cupertino, which had tied one game (20-20 against James Lick) and lost another (21-14 to Pajaro Valley) since crushing Del Mar 40-6 in its season opener, finished the pre-season with a 2-1-1 record.
The Pioneers will enjoy a bye this week before opening their Santa Clara Valley Athletic League El Camino Division season on Oct. 9 at Lynbrook.
Against Prospect, Dumov fired touchdown strikes to James Nugent, Andy Berdejo and Jeremy Ho in the first quarter. It was the Pioneers’ biggest scoring quarter of the season.
With the game never in doubt, Cupertino went on to add to its lead by way of a 6-yard touchdown run by C.J. Pumphrey.
Mustangs lose in OT
In a wild back-and-forth affair, Homestead tumbled to a 47-41 double-overtime loss to Terra Nova after forcing OT with a gutty fourth-quarter rally.
The Mustangs, who ended the pre-season with a 2-2 record, have a bye this week before beginning their De Anza Division schedule at Fremont on Oct. 9, 7 p.m.
Homestead and Fremont finished in a three-way tie for the SCVAL’s El Camino Division championship last year with Mountain View, all three teams posting 5-1 records.
Homestead entered the fourth quarter of last week’s game trailing Terra Nova 28-21, but forced overtime thanks to touchdown runs of eight yards by Dominic Faria and 85 yards by Rajah Ward.
After Terra Nova scored on a short pass to begin the first overtime period, Ward tied the game at 41-41 with his fourth touchdown run of the night, a 10-yard bolt.
But in the second OT, Homestead was unable to answer a 1-yard TD plunge by Terra Nova.
Ward finished the night with a career-best 300 yards on just 17 carries to go with his four TDs.
Faria chipped in with 74 yards on 12 carries, Sebastian Knoefel added 55 on 12 tries and Kelli Lackey contributed 37 on 10 totes as part of Homestead’s impressive 495 yards gained on the ground.
Joe Kinderman led the Mustang defensive effort with 10 tackles. Ani Shankar, Teddy Tefera and Knoefel each made seven stops, and Sam King and Kylend Howard both registered five. Homestead came up with five quarterback sacks–two each by Joe Kinderman and Howard, and one by James McFadden–and three turnovers–an interception by Tefara, and fumble recoveries by Nathan Martinez and Kinderman.
Saints stun Mats
A quick start by Monta Vista in the opening quarter dissolved under an avalanche of second half points by the Santa Teresa Saints, paving the way to a 47-14 Matador loss.
The Mats, who ended the preseason with a 2-2 record, host unbeaten Santa Clara (3-0) Friday at 7 p.m. when they open their SCVAL El Camino Division season.
Against Santa Teresa last week, Monta Vista held a 14-0 lead after one period of play, thanks to a Golan Gingold touchdown run and his 30-yard pay dirt pitch to Ryan Granzella.
By halftime, however, the Saints had rallied to tie the score, and Santa Teresa went on to tally 33 unanswered points in the second half.
The Matador offense, which had averaged 25 points a game in its first three outings of the season, was contained to a season-low 172 yards of total offense, in addition to being shut out over the final three quarters.
Defensively, Pranav Iyer topped the Mats with 10 tackles, while Jarrett James and Tom Hansen each recorded nine, and Mihir Thakar and Sayi Boddu both made seven.
Cats top Firebirds
After winning their first two games of the season, Fremont slipped to 2-2 last week when the Firebirds let an early 13-0 lead turn into a tough 27-20 loss to undefeated Woodside (4-0).
Fremont opens its De Anza Division season Friday at 7 p.m. in Milpitas against reigning champion Milpitas.
The Trojans, who also finished the preseason with a 2-2 record, won their first 10 games in a row last year before losing to Bellarmine Prep 9-6 in overtime in the first round of the Central Coast Section’s Open Division tournament.
Jordan Hendy returned the game-opening kick off 87 yards for a touchdown and Ben Tui later plunged into the end zone from a yard out to give Fremont a commanding 13-0 lead early in the second period against Woodside.
But Fremont had to rally to tie the game 20-20 on an 8-yard touchdown run by Tui and Mitchell Arteaga’s extra point kick late in the fourth quarter after Woodside had scored three unanswered TDs.
The Wildcats broke the tie on Chester Riley’s third touchdown run of the night, and then secured the victory with an interception deep in their own territory.
