Young Rams done in by penalties in loss to Vikings
Gilroy – The Rams dropped their opening game 25-22 to West Valley under the lights at Gilroy High’s Garcia-Elder Sports Complex Saturday night, but that’s not to say there weren’t a couple of positive developments for Gavilan football this season.
First the good news: Gavilan has a kicker, freshman Tony Castaneda, who can put the ball through the uprights and another, Garrett Burgess, who can boom it downfield on kickoffs to pin opposing teams down. In junior college football, that alone gives the Rams a literal leg up on many of the teams they’ll face.
Head coach John Lango’s team also looks to be as tough defensively as his squads have traditionally been. The Rams outgained the Vikings 276 yards to 144, a credit to a defensive unit led by hard-hitting sophomore linebacker Korey Gray and sophomore defensive lineman Louis Jones.
The bad news, though, is that the young Rams undermined their fine effort in straight-up play against the Vikings with mental mistakes that led to a whopping 16 penalties. Those penalties amounted to 144 yards for West Valley, meaning the Rams essentially gifted their opponent double the number of yards the Vikings were able to gain on the ground and through the air.
Lango took his sophomores aside Monday and told them it was time to set an example for the younger players on the team.
“We had a little talk with our sophomore class, because those guys need to step up,” he said.
The coach was also concerned with four Gavilan interceptions, including one returned by West Valley’s Mike Howery 47 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“In the second half, we turned the ball over,” he said. “We had four picks, including that one for a TD and that really killed us.”
Freshman quarterback Matt Virus started and remained in the entire game for the Rams. Lango said the team would stick with Virus this Saturday at College of Marin and beyond, adding, “He’s our guy.”
Virus completed 22 of 44 passes for 244 yards, and connected with freshman Rickie Mhoon for a 27-yard touchdown that the 6-3, 220-lb. receiver leaped in the air to grab in the endzone with Viking defenders hanging all over him.
That athletic snare on third-and-11, and Castaneda’s ensuing PAT, made it 22-19 in Gavilan’s favor with 11:16 to go in the fourth quarter.
But West Valley answered right back with a scoring drive of its own. Chewing up 3:01 of fourth-quarter clock, the Vikings’ eight-play, 65-yard drive culminated in a 39-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Erik Rollin to Shamarr Prentice, with the receiver running into the endzone after snaring the ball on about the Gavilan 10-yardline.
West Valley’s two-point conversion attempt failed, but the 25-22 score held up for the Vikings when a last-ditch drive by the Rams ended when Virus threw his fourth interception of the night from the Gavilan 22 with 40 seconds left.
Two drives earlier, Gavilan had brought the ball from its own 31 to the West Valley 32 on the strength of a 29-yard reception by Daniel Salinas, but turned the ball over on downs after a failed pass attempt on 4th-and-8.
Gavilan’s other touchdown came on a 1-yard plunge by Virus at 13:22 in the second quarter to punctuate a nine-play, 46-yard drive. Castaneda accounted for the remaining nine points scored by the Rams with two field goals in the second quarter and another in the third.
The Rams’ defensive front, while it lost standout Roy Simms to graduation, remains the linchpin of the defense. Gray accounted for two sacks and Louis Jones one, while freshman defensive tackle Brett Brennan and sophomore noseguard Mike Lango helped hold the Vikings to just 63 rushing yards.
“I thought we played real good first-down defense,” Lango said Monday. “We played the run strong.”
