Tag Archive | Fe’Ao Vunipola

Pittsburg Pirates v. Berkeley Yellow Jackets NCS playoff round 2ey

Ok, I headed out to this game in the wind blown fields of San Pablo Saturday night, at 7pm about 54 degrees, all 4 layers needed considering the winds.

It was a charged atmosphere, both the Pitt Pirates and Berkeley Yellow Jackets were fired up after Berkeley had won in an overtime affair earlier in the regular season.

But this night would be a whole lot different as Pitt led from the start on through to the finish and actually knocked stud RB Rudolpho James out of the game with a concussion in the third quarter. Regretful way to wrap up a hell of a career in Berkeley, I expect him to play at the college level.

Pitt was simply a team on a mission to avenge its loss and continue the momentum it created by beating its rival Antioch twice in consecutive weeks. What characterizes the Pirates is a mostly no nonsense approach to their offense and defense. They do something that is pretty simple: Put their best players on the field and use simple alignments and toss runs or rocket and counters up the middle. When they need to they open it up and throw down the middle of the field though they are much more effective on the ground. They remind me of some of the college teams under Lou Holtz. Play defense, run the ball, don’t make mistakes. That is how their entire night went on Saturday, as I never once thought question their strategy and they fed the ball to their best players using plays that their O-Line can really block. On defense, they were equally up to the task swarming the Berkeley running game and laying some big hits. The squad has 20 players over 200 lbs and that doesnt count their speedsters. They did allow two long passes by Berkeley in the first half that were costly, setting up the Rudolpho TD but that was the only hope they allowed. Had they fixed their coverage they would have played a near perfect game against a very good Yellow Jacket team.

With the win, Pitt gets De La Salle next Friday night and it should be very emotional for Pitt. I went to the last game, in late 2009 in Dublin, the NCS championship and the Pirates could not stop Terron Ward and company all night, and as a sophomore Bart Houston was already looking very good.

In 2011, I know Pitt has a lot better athletes and more cohesiveness –due to improved coaching– and the sophomore kicker I noticed was literally booming kicks (against the wind) to the back of the end zone.

The RB Duo of Mister Marcus Cotton, Vupinola and Lockett (seen below) is fierce and the passing game for the Pirates has improved greatly since September when I saw them have to outrun Monte Vista because they had no passing attack. DLS is a lot to contend with, so I’ll leave it at that.

Above: Pitt QB Malik Watson with hand-off

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Pirates gather on sideline early into the game.