It’s still early in the season, but the Westmont and Prospect football teams are right where they want to be—atop their respective divisions.

Both teams ran their Blossom Valley Athletic League records to 2-0 last week, giving them each a share of their division leads.

The Warriors, who destroyed Sobrato 49-12 last week, enter this week in a tie for first place in the Santa Teresa Division along with Branham, while the Panthers, who clipped Evergreen Valley 16-13, head into Friday’s action in a three-way tie for the top spot in the West Valley Division with Gunderson and Overfelt.

Westmont (4-1, 2-0) visits San Jose (2-3, 1-1) Friday for a 7 p.m. battle. The Bulldogs, who lost their league opener to Branham 27-24, evened their BVAL record last week by beating Mt. Pleasant 22-14.

“They’re big, physical and fast,” Westmont head coach Mark Kaanapu said of the Bulldogs. “We’ll have to have a great week of practice and take care of the little things like blocking, tackling and catching the ball in order for us to have success against them.”

Westmont nipped San Jose 26-24 last year, and has won four of the last five meetings between the two schools.

Prospect (3-2, 2-0), meanwhile, travels to Gunderson (4-1, 2-0) the same night for a pivotal showdown with the co-leading Grizzlies. Game time is slated for 7 p.m. Gunderson is coming off of a 46-7 dismantling of Yerba Buena last week.

The Grizzlies have beaten the Panthers the last three times the teams have met, including last year’s 14-6 decision.

“They have some athletes, but so do we,” said Prospect head coach Salvador Romero of the Grizzlies. “I think we definitely match up well. It’s a big game for us; we need to eliminate mistakes and protect the football to come out on top.”

Westmont wins

Despite allowing over 300 yards through the air to Sobrato, Westmont cruised to its win last week, equaling the most points it has scored in a single game in the past three years.

“Sobrato is a passing team and they made some adjustments coming into the game that allowed them to move the ball in the first half,” noted Kaanapu. “But our staff and players did a great job [making adjustments] at halftime, and we were able to shut them down in the second half.”

Middle linebacker Nolan Berry played a key role in shutting Sobrato’s passing game down in the second half by recording three quarterback sacks.

Berry was also a key figure on offense for the Warriors, rushing for career highs of 183 yards and four touchdowns. The Westmont senior has now rushed for 653 yards and 12 touchdowns on the season, and has racked up more than 100 yards in four of the five games the Warriors have played this season.

Quarterback Johnnie Phillips added three touchdown passes, giving him a total of seven for the season.

“The whole offensive line did a great job collectively, and that’s why we were able to move the ball,” said Kaanapu.

Although Sobrato racked up nearly 400 yards of total offense, including 324 through the air, Kaanapu was pleased with his team’s overall effort.

“The team competed on every play, the whole game” he said. “We showed composure and competitiveness.”

Big field goal

For the second time this season, Prospect rode the right leg of Nelson Lopez to victory.

With the game tied 13-13 in the third quarter, Lopez booted his second game-winning field goal of the season. In the Panthers’ season opener on Sept. 2, Lopez had lifted Prospect over Harker 17-14 with a 24-yard field goal in overtime.

The Panthers had taken the early lead on a 74-yard touchdown run by senior Tato Daza on Prospect’s second play of the game and scored again when Temo Daza pulled in a 9-yard TD toss from Anthony Escobar.

It was the 25-yard field goal by Lopez, though, that ended up the difference in the game.

According to Romero, winning a close game like that “is going to help [us], definitely. It builds confidence moving forward.”

“On offense, we’re protecting the football better the last two weeks,” added the coach, “but we still have lots of room for improvement.”

It was the performance of the defense, though, that helped the Panthers secure the win.

“Our defense came up big throughout the game, stopping them numerous times,” said Romero, who added that Will Hill, Aiden Jones, Tel Tautlolo and Patrick Harris all had quarterback sacks.

Dons slip to 1-1

Del Mar dropped to 1-1 in the West Valley Division after last week’s 38-32 loss to Overfelt.

“I thought the team played really well,” said Del Mar head coach Jason Bumbaca. “We had opportunities to win the game. We just didn’t capitalize when we needed to.”

The Dons, who fell to 1-4 overall this season, ran the ball exceptionally well against the physical Royal defense, led by Dylan Oliver and Justin Collins.

Oliver rushed for a career-best 151 yards, including a 62-yard touchdown romp, and Collins, the Dons’ quarterback, added 103 yards that included three TD runs.

Isaac Juarez chipped in with a 45-yard touchdown romp.

“Our linemen and receivers are blocking better, which is opening more holes for our backs,” noted Bumbaca. “And Justin [Collins] is making better decisions within the option run game.”

Defensively, the Dons received strong efforts from Anthony Zephyr-Ventura (13 tackles), Estevan Gannon (10 tackles, including a quarterback sack) and Conner Howery (11 tackles, including two for losses).

The Dons will try to get back in the win column Friday when they visit Evergreen Valley (0-2, 0-5) for a 7 p.m. contest.

“I’ve seen them on film. They’re pretty big and like to run the football,” said Bumbaca. “Our team needs to play sound, disciplined defense and mistake-free offense. I like our chances this week as long as we can do those two things.”

The Cougars have beaten the Dons four of the last six times they have met, including last year when they posted a 24-12 victory.