When the Los Gatos-Campbell Longhorns South 14U Pop Warner football team started the season 1-3, few thought they could turn around their season and finish with a winning record, let alone make a deep playoff run.
But head coach Saul Kennedy knew he had a team of talented athletes and a quality coaching staff that could produce something special by season’s end. Kennedy proved prescient, as the Longhorns advanced to the Pop Warner Super Bowl tournament in Orlando, Fla.
Even though the Longhorns went 0-2 in Pop Warner’s most prestigious event – they lost to Apopka Blue Darter of Florida 14-0 on Dec. 4 and then to the Churchland Tigers of Virginia 13-11 on Wednesday – this will go down as a historic season those around the program won’t soon forget.
“The Los Gatos team has never gone as Division I which is the top level,” Kennedy said before the team traveled to Orlando last week. “They’ve gone as Division III but never gone as a Division I champ.”
Kennedy said he’s particularly proud of the players because they were routinely going up against bigger opponents locally, particularly the perennial powerhouse squads Bayside Broncos and Menlo-Atherton Vikings.
The Longhorns played Bayside and M-A in the first two games of the season, losing by scores of 15-0 and 28-8, respectively. After earning its first win of the season, Los Gatos-Campbell suffered what Kennedy called a “very painful” loss to Santa Cruz to drop the team’s record to 1-3.
That game was in mid-September, and the Longhorns proceeded to win seven consecutive games. They closed the Peninsula League season with four straight victories, then avenged losses to Bayside and M-A in the league playoffs before overwhelming Reno 30-0 in the Northwest Regional championship game on Nov. 19 to advance to the Super Bowl stage.
“We’re all proud of the players and it’s pretty awesome,” Kennedy said. “We all believed in each other and knew there was athletic ability on this team that would help us because most of them had never played tackle football before. They had to come into their own when it came to that and it was pretty cool to watch them develop that way.”
Kennedy continued: “If you saw us the first couple of games and then someone said we’d go to the playoffs, you literally would say, ‘No way,’” Kennedy said. “A lot of times it’s about coaching football which makes a big difference.”
Even though beating Reno got them to the Super Bowl, the Longhorns’ top highlight was beating the formidable Bayside team, 14-8, in the league playoff semifinals on Nov. 5. Bayside entered the game 8-0 and was beating teams by a lopsided margin.
In the season-opener, Bayside defeated Los Gatos-Campbell, 15-0. So, it wasn’t a wipeout but it was a game the Broncos controlled throughout. However, the No. 4 seed Longhorns were ready for the rematch and stunned No. 1 Bayside, 14-8.
“There was a lot of shock in that one,” Kennedy said. “Bayside was hands down pound for pound way bigger than us and on average 70 to 80 pounds heavier per man on the line. They beat us the first time so when this underdog beat them, there were a lot of tears, a lot of shock.”
A week after beating Bayside, the Longhorns defeated M-A 18-8 behind another superb performance from the defense.
“Defense is what carried us,” Kennedy said.
Linebacker Jordan Visperas led the way on both sides of the ball all season. Nicknamed The General, Visperas delivered bone-crunching hits and made plays all over the field.
“Jordan is the leader and it all centers around him,” Kennedy said. “He hits harder than anybody, and we heard that from other teams.”
The defensive line of Ryan Sakai, Noah Paredez and Chase Graff was stout and played great gap control, allowing linebackers Ethan Chase, Peyton Chase, Justin Donahue, Jared Newman and Visperas to roam free and make tackles.
Cornerbacks RJ Guldbech and Cole Canter along with safety D’Auntay Parks proved to be formidable in breaking up passes or allowing completions for inconsequential gains. Offensively, the team had two units, a spread formation and double wing.
When the Longhorns were in the spread, Caleb Bandel played quarterback. When they were in the double wing, Tyler Bennett was under center. In either case, the team was potent with the ball as it had a tough offensive line in Sakai, Andres Nava, Ethan Chase, Isaac Bybee-Del Real, Elijah Kroenung and Jayden Visperas, whom Kennedy said was the anchor.
The Longhorns were loaded at the skill positions with a receiving core of Akai Beavers, Jadon Shabaglian and Nishaan Koneru, and running backs Dominic Vaccaro, Peyton Chase and Donahue. Lane Newman and Hunter and Jax Halas—one of four sets of twins on the team—are multi-purpose players and difference-makers, Kennedy said.
Youth football tends to be run-oriented but Kennedy said having someone like Bandel allowed the Longhorns to pose a threat offensively through the air. Against Bayside, Bandel’s touchdown pass to Beavers with five minutes left accounted for the game-winning score.
The defense did the rest, forcing a turnover on downs near midfield.
“We had the luxury of having a very good passer so we could beat you either way,” Kennedy said.
The turning point of the season was the 39-38 loss to Santa Cruz, which stung for a variety of reasons.
“That was really painful but after that game, we never looked back,” Kennedy said. “We lost on the last play of the game but even in defeat, we had our eyes open that we were a really good team. Then we went out and proved it. We jelled at the right time and people didn’t want to see us come playoff time. They knew we were a team to be reckoned with because of what we had done since that 1-3 start.”
