SAN JOSE - Pete Lavorato couldn’t stop gushing about his team.
“I hope I didn’t come off cocky or anything,” he said, after talking to reporters about SHP’s 14-0 win over Bellarmine to clinch the school’s first Open Division title.
Even if he did, no one would blame him. SHP has an enrollment of 600 students, while Bellarmine has well over 1,500. This was the Gators’ first season in the Open Division, while the Bells had appeared in four Open Division titles in 10 years.
However, based on the game, a color-blind observer would have thought the Gators were the more experienced team. With a balanced passing and run attack, two touchdowns in the red zone from star running back Ben Burr-Kirven, and clutch interceptions late, Sacred Heart Prep did the unthinkable with a shutout of Bellarmine.
“This is something special,” said Burr-Kirven. “This is the highest level of achievement you can get in Bay Area football. There’s nothing close.”
Well, fans of North Coast Section football might argue that statement, but you get the idea. It was a huge win for the Gators.
Burr-Kirven, who was bottled up during a scoreless first half where he had just 32 yards on nine carries, came through with a 3-yard touchdown on the opening drive of the second half, leaping over the pile to score what would be the game-winning touchdown. That play was set up by a tough 24-yard completion from quarterback Mason Randall to Michael Martella at the 9-yard line of Bellarmine.
That 80-yard drive changed the momentum of the game; SHP stuck to its game plan of running despite a rather stagnant first half offensively.
“We re-committed to what we were doing,” said Burr-Kirven. “We didn’t quit on anything. We just knew we could keep running the same plays, pound them in the middle and eventually they were going to soften up.”
Lavorato explained that he brought out the “double tight package” in the second half and emphasized the run game, which paid dividends.
“We did a little more running. I thought we could get some catches on certain guys against them, but as Vince Lombardi said, ‘When you throw the ball, three things can happen and two of them are bad.’ So I just said, ‘Let’s run the ball, establish [a rhythm], take some time off the clock and score. We'll get them behind the eight-ball.’”
Burr-Kirven’s touchdown was the first score after a first half that saw both teams throw away opportunities.
On Bellarmine’s opening drive, what appeared to be a spectacular 49-yard touchdown run by Anthony Guttadauro was called back due to a holding penalty. The Bells eventually punted. The Bells’ best chance to get on the board came with 3:58 left in the first half when their running game set up a 27-yard field goal attempt, but the effort missed wide right to keep the game scoreless.
Said Bellarmine coach Mike Janda: “We just couldn’t break through and they deserve all the credit.”
Sacred Heart Prep wasn’t perfect. Three times the Gators failed to convert on fourth down during the first half; on one instance, they went for it on fourth down at their own 28-yard line. Burr-Kirven was stuffed a yard short, giving the Bells prime field position, which was scuttled by a sack of Bellarmine quarterback Troy Martig on third down followed by a fourth down stop. A late drive by the Gators brought them down to the Bellarmine 21-yard line with two seconds left in the half, but they returned the favor as a field goal sailed wide left.
However, SHP found just enough offense in the second half. Burr-Kirven scored the lone points of the final 24 minutes in the third quarter, and he did the same in the fourth on the opening drive. Aided by a pass interference penalty, Burr-Kirven had six carries on a 16-play, 91-yard drive that ended with the running back pounding his way into the end zone for a 2-yard touchdown, putting the Gators up 14-0.
Down two scores with time running down, a usually run-heavy Bellarmine offense was forced to throw, and SHP was equal to the task, picking off two passes and eventually running out the clock.
While a shutout win in the championship game by an up-and-coming team over a perennial powerhouse may have come as a surprise to some, Lavorato doesn’t like the “underdog” stigma.
“I don’t want to talk about how we’ve validated or proved [ourselves] – baloney,” he quipped. “We already proved it last year. We can play with most teams and it will be competitive.”
Indeed, the Gators won the Division III NorCal Championship a year ago after winning the Division IV title in 2012. This is a team on the rise, a team that has shown that it can play with the best despite having a markedly smaller student body. However, for their season to continue, they will have to be chosen to play in the state championships in either the Open Division or Division I.
Lavorato thinks it’s a no brainer, pointing out, “We’re 13-0, won the Open Division, beat Bellarmine 14-0. We’ve beaten Los Gatos, Oak Grove and Bellarmine -– the three top teams ever in the CCS. To me, we should be going somewhere and playing somebody.”
For Burr-Kirven, he hopes he hasn’t played his last high school game, and he knows his team deserves one more chance to prove the doubters wrong.
“We’re a damn good football team,” he said, teary-eyed. “We just shut out a WCAL team – we weren’t even supposed to be here. Los Gatos was supposed to kill us; these guys were supposed to kill us. It was always, ‘Oh, they’re getting lucky.’ We’re not lucky – we’re good. I promise you that. I don’t care who you put us against, we’re going to fight. If we go on, more to power to us, I’d love to.”
