Despite efforts of frosh running back, Gavilan falls to
Mendocino
After an impressive win the previous week over Mendocino
College, the Gavilan College football team came crashing back to
earth last Saturday night in a major way.
Despite efforts of frosh running back, Gavilan falls to Mendocino
After an impressive win the previous week over Mendocino College, the Gavilan College football team came crashing back to earth last Saturday night in a major way.
Gavilan suffered a demoralizing 58-10 road loss to the College of San Mateo, the No. 7 ranked team in Northern California.
The Rams will try to stop the skid this Saturday night at Gilroy High against the College of the Sequoias; but beating the Giants won’t be easy. Like the Bulldogs, the College of the Sequoias is also ranked. They are currently No. 11 in Northern California.
“We need to be able to stop the run and tackle better this week,” said Gavilan Coach John Lango. “They like to run the football a lot.”
Despite the throttling by CSM last week, Lango remains optimistic that his squad, which is now 2-3, can turn things around.
“We still think we are good,” he said. “We have good discipline on the field and our goal remains the same: to be Coast Conference champs.”
But anyone who witnessed Gavilan’s performance last Saturday night in the San Mateo foothills would find that goal a little far-fetched-even if the Coast Conference has weaker teams.
“San Mateo (4-1) is a very, very good football team-the best by far,” said Lango. “They are very big upfront and well coached. They also took us out of our game plan early by jumping out to a big lead.”
Jumping may not be the right word. Pounced may be more accurate.
After Gavilan kicked a 40-yard field goal on its opening drive to make the score 3-0, San Mateo came back with vengeance.
The Bulldogs scored two touchdowns in their first two plays from scrimmage-in a total of :16 seconds.
And if that wasn’t enough to take the wind out of the Rams’ sails, it took CSM just 15 plays from scrimmage to score their first six touchdowns.
By halftime, the score was 44-3.
After a quick Bulldog touchdown in the second half, which made the score 51-3, San Mateo pulled all of its starters.
“He (Larry Owens) is a class act,” said Lango of San Mateo’s coach for pulling their starters early in the second half. “Their whole coaching staff is real professional.”
Gavilan’s lone touchdown of the game came with just under two-minutes remaining in the closing quarter.
Adam Ramos scored on a five-yard run which made the score 58-10. What made the drive possible was a 19-yard punt that was shanked by San Mateo’s punter. The Rams took possession at their 40-yard line and marched 60 yards for the score by way of a combination of running and pass plays.
For the night, San Mateo racked up 491 yards of total offense and averaged 9.8 yards per play.
Gavilan had 245 yards of offense-118 yards through the air and 127 on the ground.
One bright spot for Gavilan Saturday night was the play of A.J. Garcia. The freshman back had 64 yards on 16 carries.
“We’ve talked about this loss a lot this week with the team,” said Lango. “But the bottom line is win or lose, we’ve still got five more games to play. And we’ll continue to battle.”
So far, all the games that Gavilan has competed in have been non-league contests. On October 26, they will play their first league game of the season against DeAnza College. From there they square off with Hartnell, Monterey Peninsula College and wrap the season up at Cabrillo College on November 16.
