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Wilcox running back Luther Glenn was just a little too much for the Mountain View defense to handle.
Glenn rushed for 320 yards and all six Wilcox touchdowns in a 42-27 football win over Mountain View on Friday night.
The Spartans fell short against one of the De Anza Division’s best teams. But for them it was all about closing the gap, about the distance traveled, about getting closer to the elite level personified by the Chargers.
“We battled, we scared them a little,” Mountain View coach Shelley Smith said.
The three previous games between the two teams resulted in Wilcox victories by scores of 25-7, 42-3 and 50-14, so this outcome was an improvement for the Spartans.
“They are really good,” Wilcox coach Paul Rosa said. “I really like what they’re doing on offense.”
It was a back-and-forth tussle for most of the game. Both teams scored a pair of touchdowns in a first half that ended 14-14. And after Leo Navarro broke his second long touchdown run of the third quarter — a 61-yard run following a 71-yarder — it was four touchdowns apiece with 5:47 left in the third quarter.
The problem, however, for Mountain View, came in the form of a 5-yard penalty on the extra-point attempt. The kick after the penalty was enforced went wide, leaving the Spartans a point short at 28-27.
Three plays later Glenn broke loose on his own 61-yard TD to extend Wilcox’s lead to 35-27.
Mountain View attempted to respond, as it had all game, and drove from its own 20 to the Wilcox 6. On third down a Mountain View receiver took a short pass and was stripped of the ball as he tried to cross the goal line with the Chargers recovering at the 5. They proceeded to go on a 12-play, 95-yard drive, all on runs up the middle, and went up by two touchdowns on Glenn’s sixth scoring run.
Glenn finished with 320 of Wilcox’s 430 yards rushing.
“Our offensive line played great,” Rosa said.
Mountain View quarterback Jackson Steffen completed 16 of 28 passes for 181 yards and two first-half touchdowns to Joe Brown. Navarro, with the two long touchdown runs in the third quarter — “Our buck sweep, an old Wing-T play,” Smith said — accumulated 151 yards rushing on 10 carries.
“I am really proud of our guys,” Smith said. “In years past we would’ve folded our tent. I like our fight, love our kids.”
