Heading into this week’s game, the Valley Center varsity football team knew that in order to beat an undefeated team like Ramona, you have to excel at the fundamentals of running the ball and playing good defense.
But even the Jaguars wouldn’t have predicted how well that plan would work, nor would they have expected the potent rushing attack to feature a new threat, as they rolled to a 41–27 victory over the Bulldogs in Ramona on Friday night.
The Jags remained undefeated thanks to another outstanding effort from the defense, and got a boost from the unexpected explosion of rushing yardage provided by quarterback Beau Reilly.
“We have that stuff in the playbook, and we run it in practice, but we figured, ‘When are we going to run this in a game?’ But it worked,” Reilly said of the designed quarterback runs, including an option play and a quarterback sneak that resulted in a 20-yard touchdown.
Reilly, usually a traditional pocket passer, racked up 110 yards on 13 carries and scored two touchdowns on the ground. He also added six completions on 14 attempts for 116 yards and a touchdown through the air. Running back Travis Bernard turned in another outstanding game in leading the rushing attack with 18 carries for 160 yards and a touchdown, while also adding three receptions for 55 yards and a touchdown in the passing game.
“It was great to beat this team, especially after last week,” Reilly added, referring to last Friday’s thrilling 31–28 win over Los Alamitos. “Even after we got down [in the first quarter], we knew that we’d done this before. Our coaches are great at making adjustments, and we stepped up when we needed it.”
After the Bulldogs took the opening kickoff back 98 yards for a touchdown and scored again to take a 14–3 lead early in the first quarter, the Valley Center came through with a game-changing play.
Ramona had driven deep into Valley Center territory, but Jaguar defensive end Kenny Thomas dropped back into coverage and picked off a fourth-down pass, then broke into the open field for a 70-yard touchdown return that provided the spark the Jags were looking for.
“I was just thinking, “Run faster!’” Thomas said of the big play. “I didn’t want to get caught from behind.”
The Jaguars ended up with two interceptions and three sacks in the game, and after Ramona scored its second touchdown with 3:58 left in the first quarter, the Jags didn’t allow the Bulldogs to score again until 4:05 left in the third quarter.
“They were ready to play,” Valley Center head coach Rob Gilster said of the Bulldogs. “They had a great crowd and they were running the show. But Kenny made that play, and the game turned on a dime.”
Ramona came out ready to play, taking the opening kickoff back for a 98-yard touchdown. Valley Center responded, driving 64 yards on the ensuing possession, but came up short on third down and settled for a 35-yard field goal by David Last.
The Bulldogs stormed back, driving 80 yards in seven plays to score again, this time on a five-yard touchdown run, to pull ahead by 11.
The Jaguars went three and out on their next drive, and Ramona took over at its own 39 with momentum firmly on the home team’s side.
But after two plays and a quick first down, the Bulldogs ran into trouble. Thomas leveled a Ramona receiver after a short completion on second down, then picked off the fourth-down pass and took it back for the touchdown on the final play of the first quarter. Thomas dropped back into coverage on the defensive right side of the formation as the Jaguars brought the rush from the left side, and pressure from Stehly Reden forced a floating pass that Thomas swooped in front of to get the interception.
Ramona took over at the 20 after a touchback on the ensuing kickoff, but the Jaguar defense could feel the momentum shift and stepped up with another interception. This time, the Bulldog quarterback rolled out to his left and tried to fit the pass into his receiver along the sideline, but Reden jumped up, snagged the pass at the 25 and returned it to the 20.
On the next play, Reilly faked a drop back, then tucked the ball away and took off to his left, battling through tackles to take it in for a 20-yard touchdown run that gave Valley Center a 20–14 lead with 11:45 left in the second quarter.
After the flurry of action at the end of the first quarter, the Jaguars transformed an 11-point deficit to a three-point lead in three plays and just over 15 seconds of time off the game clock.
But the Jags were just getting warmed up, especially on defense, as they got two sacks and a tackle for a loss on Ramona’s next three plays. Thomas stuffed the Bulldog running back for a one-yard loss on first down, then Reden got to the quarterback for a seven-yard loss on second down, and Thomas finished off the onslaught with a sack for a loss of nine on third down.
Bernard returned the Ramona punt to the Bulldogs’ 25, setting up a three-play scoring drive that he capped off with a four-yard touchdown run to put the Jaguars ahead by ten with just over eight minutes left before halftime.
Ramona picked up two first downs on the next drive, but another sack, this one by linebacker Jacob Beason on first down, eventually led to another punt by the Bulldogs that went into the endzone for a touchback.
From their own 20, the Jaguars drove 75 yards and nearly punched in another touchdown, but after two incompletions in the endzone, Last came on to kick a 24-yard field goal that put Valley Center ahead 27–14 at halftime.
To start the second half, the Jags picked up right where they left off in the first half, as they drove 65 yards in seven plays to score another touchdown. The score came on a 16-yard touchdown run by Reilly, who slashed through the defense into the endzone to give the Jags a 20-point lead with nine minutes left in the third quarter.
Ramona needed some signs of life to keep the Jags from running away with the game completely, and the Bulldogs responded with a touchdown drive that covered 80 yards in nine plays. The score came on a play the San Diego Chargers used to employ with LaDanian Tomlinson, where the quarterback fakes the handoff to the fullback going in one direction, then tosses the ball back to the running back going in the opposite direction. Using this bit of trickery, the Bulldogs scored on a 36-yard touchdown run with just over four minutes left in the third quarter. But a bad snap on the extra point try resulted in a failed attempt, and the Jaguars still had a 14-point lead.
Valley Center’s offense sputtered on the ensuing possession, going three and out, but Last buried the punt out of bounds at the Ramona nine yard line to give the Bulldogs a tough starting spot for their next drive.
Ramona escaped the bad field position and got into Valley Center territory, but after the drive stalled, the Bulldogs sent out the punt unit. The Jags played a normal defense on the fourth-and-six play, anticipating a possible fake punt, but the Ramona snap skipped off the ground before it got to the punter, and Jaguar linebacker Shonta Chaloux made the tackle to give the Jags the ball back at the Ramona 41.
From there, Reilly and the offense engineered a four-play touchdown drive, capped by a beautiful play on fourth down that wound up in the endzone. On the play, the Jags sent Bernard in motion out of the backfield, and Reilly floated a perfect pass to him on a corner route. After making the catch, Bernard battled through a tackle and stayed on his feet for a 36-yard touchdown reception that made the score 41–20 with just over ten minutes left in the game.
Ramona scored the final touchdown late in the game on a run up the middle that wound up as a 49-yard touchdown, but after the Jaguars recovered the ensuing onside kick, they ran out the clock and took the win.
“Ramona’s a good team, and this was another great win for us, especially after last week,” Gilster said. “Getting back to back wins against two good football teams is excellent. We showed that we’re resilient and that we can be a great team. We just need to keep getting better.”
“We need to be done being a second half team,” Reilly said. “We play really well in the second half, but we need to come out in the first half with that same intensity. We need to be a complete team.”
Next up, the undefeated Jaguars travel to Escondido to play the 0–4 Cougars on Friday night. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment