Gavilan stays in game early, but Giants pull away for 35-0
win
It would have been easy for College of the Sequoias to overlook Gavilan in their junior college football game Saturday with Valley Conference titan Reedley College looming on the horizon, except for one factor.
Call it the Hartnell College factor. One year ago, the Giants were sailing along 4-0 and the Panthers were 0-4. Hartnell upended COS 66-60. Fast forward to this year. Gavilan was coming off a 28-20 win over the Panthers.
Thus, coach Curtis Allen had no trouble getting his players’ attention about the need to not overlook the Rams. There was no letdown or looking ahead for the Giants, whose swarming defense stopped Gavilan in its tracks and paved the way to a 35-0 win in Visalia.
College of the Sequoias (4-1) passing made the offense go as quarterback Andre Sloan El completed 28 of 40 passes for 379 yards. The Giants racked up 493 yards of total offense and had 27 first downs.
“We had opportunities early in the game to make things happen,” Gavilan coach John Lango said. “College of the Sequoias hurt itself early and we tried to take advantage.”
In fact, Lango believed so much that the Rams (1-5) could compete with the Giants that he actually took points off the board.
It was in the second quarter and COS was ahead 14-0 when Gavilan put together a drive that was capped by an Erik Cifuentes’ 31-yard field goal. However, a personal foul gave the Rams a first-and-goal at the 7, and Lango opted to try for a touchdown. An interception ended that opportunity.
Gavilan had two chances in the red zone in which it came up empty. Meanwhile, Sloan El hooked up with A.J. Jackson for a 13-yard touchdown pass, and Daniel Dufrene scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 6-yard run on the last play of the first quarter for a 14-0 lead.
“It could have been 14-7 or even tied at halftime if we had been able to take advantage of opportunities,” Lango said.
The second half was all COS. The Giants took the second-half kickoff and drove 66 yards in eight plays with Sloan El connecting with Dufrene for a 28-yard touchdown play. Abner Brown and Michael Benson also caught second-half touchdown passes for COS.
Gavilan was again short on bodies, playing without injured running backs Matt Perkins and Justin Sweeney. Quarterback Will Kilday was harassed all game by the swarming COS defense and completed just 6 of 32 passes. The Rams had 139 yards of total offense.
