Three weeks into the Gavilan football season and still no real
surprises.
Gilroy – Three weeks into the Gavilan football season and still no real surprises.
The Rams fell to a strong Mendocino College team 38-14 Saturday afternoon on the winners’ turf, dropping Gavilan to 1-2 in pre-Coast Conference play.
After setbacks to Modesto and Mendocino following the opening victory over Marin, the Rams may be in line for a second victory Friday night in San Pablo against a reeling (0-3) Contra Costa Comets squad.
The upcoming detour in the schedule does little to bandage Saturday’s loss to the Eagles. Mendocino passed at will against Gavilan’s defense, posting a 400-yard performance along with five touchdowns. Wide-out Kyle O’Donnell enjoyed a career day against Gavilan, snatching 13 passes for 145 yards.
“Mendocino played match-up with us to make their passing game go,” said Gavilan coach John Lango. “They had a couple of 6-foot-3 receivers and they’d look to where they’d be covered by a 5-8 corner and they’d throw in that direction. Mendocino had three touchdowns and one two-point conversion on either toss-ups or fades.”
After the Eagles bullied to a 31-0 lead through three quarters, the game Rams pushed across two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
Running back Matt McCoy caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from back-up quarterback Michael Incardona on the first play of the final quarter. McCoy scored again on a one-yard run with 1:02 left in the contest.
Nick Kalantari hooked up with Ellis Krout for a successful two-point conversion.
Kalantari, named the team starter last week by Lango, connected on nine of 25 attempts for 112 yards. Incardona made five of 10 tosses for 28 yards in limited action.
Playing catch-up for most of the game left the Rams with little ability to fashion a rushing game. Several sacks by the Eagles left Gavilan with a loss of 32 yards with 32 running plays. Mendocino managed 89 yards on 32 ground plays.
Mendocino, along with controlling the clock, built up 30 first downs, including 24 through the air. Gavilan came up with 13 first downs, including five through penalties.
Sophomore quarterback Cody Manguso fired four touchdown passes in a 35-for-54 afternoon for the winners.
“Our offense didn’t do well,” said Lango. “We were not able to sustain drives. That led to us being on the field for 90 plays on defense.
“We did limit our penalties and we had only one turnover, a fumble on a kick return. We also had one field goal try blocked.”
Lango lauded the play of Ram safety Victor Kalata for consistent performance on defense and strong work on kick coverage.
The Eagles drained any suspense from the showdown by racing to a 16-0 lead after one quarter, then 24-0 by halftime.
Just 82 seconds into play, Manguso tossed a 10-yard scoring pass to Jake Laudenslayer for a 6-0 lead. Laudenslayer returned the favor with 7:07 left in the quarter with a 12-yard pitch to Manguso. Rico Montez-DeOrca kicked the PAT and added a 26-yard field goal with 23 seconds to play in the quarter.
Manguso and Laudenslayer combined on an 11-yard TD pass with 4:32 left in the half. Manguso passed to Steven Joachim for the two-point conversion.
Manguso completed the Eagle scoring with touchdown passes to Laudenslayer and Joachim in the second half.
