Prep football: American Canyon routs Casa Grande to take over first place in league

Posted on Author Joan Tabb

This post was originally published on this site.

American Canyon steamrolled Casa Grande 48-7 on Saturday night for its seventh straight victory, taking over sole possession of first place in the Redwood Empire Conference Valley division with one game left in the regular season.

The Wolves rushed for a season-high 365 yards and forced three Casa Grande turnovers, all of which led to points.

How it happened

The Wolves (8-1, 5-0 REC-Valley) rattled off consecutive nine-play scoring drives on their first two possessions of the game to open up a quick 14-0 lead. Andre Lopez punched in the first score from seven yards out, then, after the Gauchos lost a fumble inside the Wolves’ 10 on their first possession, it was Marcus-Jasiri Hughes with a four-yard touchdown rush to make it 14-0 in the closing seconds of the first quarter.

Casa Grande (4-5, 4-1) responded with a 12-play scoring drive, capped by a 16-yard connection between quarter Joey Cerda and Logan Urton, who made a spectacular leaping catch for the touchdown on fourth down.

The Gauchos started to gain some momentum, forcing a turnover on downs deep in their own territory to end the Wolves’ following drive.

But the first half ended in disaster for the Gauchos. They elected to go for it on fourth and three from their own 25 and were unsuccessful. The Wolves took quick advantage of the short field as Lopez rumbled into the end zone for a 12-yard score two plays later to make it 21-7 with two minutes till half.

Casa then was forced into a quick punt, but the snap sailed over the punter’s head and was recovered by American Canyon’s Jona Budu for a 20-yard scoop and score to push the lead to 28-7 with 30 seconds till half.

Casa opened the third with a promising drive deep into Wolves territory once again, but Jamar Choyce picked off Cerda at the goal line on fourth down and returned the interception to midfield. Choyce also had the fumble recovery in the first quarter.

The Wolves needed just five more plays to score again, Lopez scoring from a yard out to make it 35-7 midway through the third.

Casa turned the ball over on downs again and this time American Canyon’s Isaac Anderson broke free for a 41-yard touchdown run to make it 42-7 and trigger a running clock for the fourth quarter.

The Wolves added one final score late in the fourth for good measure.

For the game, American Canyon averaged 10.4 yards per carry and ran 41 offensive plays with 14 gained first downs. Lopez finished with 102 rushing yards on 10 carries with three scores, while Anderson finished with 111 yards on six carries with a score.

Casa Grande, meanwhile, totaled 236 yards on 61 plays, an average of 3.9 yards per play. Urton was the most productive, finishing with 82 receiving yards on five catches with a touchdown.

Key plays

The game swung on the two touchdowns the Wolves scored just before halftime. Casa Grande’s decision to go for it on their own 25 was questionable and ultimately cost 14 points and probably the game. If the Gauchos punted in that situation, they could have gone into halftime down by just a score. But the two late touchdowns put this game on ice early.

Quotable

“The offensive line played a great game tonight. The runners can’t do it without them, players like Sam Escobar, Caden James, Adrian Ducut, Sean Byron – they did an excellent job tonight in protecting the ball and the running backs.” – American Canyon head coach Marcellus Holmes

“We’ve been working so hard for this game. We’ve been upping the intensity, just straight focus all week. 
 We have a lot of seniors and we’ve never beat them for the last three years, even on JV. Our last year we had to go out with a bang.” – Andre Lopez

“As soon as our game was over against Napa last week, everyone was watching film that same night. We were hungry for this one. 
 This was a major, major win for us because I haven’t beat them since my freshman year and this was a statement game for me, to show to not sleep on the Wolves. We’re coming and we’re hungry.” – Jamar Choyce

“Just not our night. We’re young, we’re inexperienced. It is what it is for us. I don’t think I had them prepared and AC is a good team, those kids play hard. It’s just one of those years. We were 18-0 in our last 18 league games going into this one. We’re good to go; come back here next week and fight for the Egg Bowl championship and see what happens with NCS. What I did is schedule hard teams for a reason to make us better. It clearly didn’t help and it clearly isn’t going to help us now that the NCS changed the rules (of the playoff system). It is what it is. I’m not going to complain about it. I feel bad for our kids, that’s the only thing.” – Casa Grande head coach John Antonio

“We’re not even going to look at it as a playoff game for us. We’re going to look at it as our final week and if we can pull out a win and maybe roll the dice and get in. If we don’t, we don’t. Maybe we’ll get to see these guys (American Canyon) again in the playoffs.” – Antonio on the Egg Bowl game vs. Petaluma next week

Takeaways

If you’re not believing in the Wolves yet, there’s still time to jump on the bandwagon. The defending CIF Division 5-A state champs have won seven games in a row since their 27-21 loss to St. Vincent in Week 2 and none of their wins have been particularly close.

The smallest margin of victory over their winning streak is 19 points. They’re averaging over 300 yards per game in their last six games with a clip of over eight yards per play and have now rushed for over 300 yards in five games this season.

The Wolves’ front line on both offense and defense was the difference maker against Casa. Cerda was scrambling all night and the running backs had chunk play after chunk play.

It was efficient, clean and deadly, and a sign that the Wolves are starting to peak as they gear up for another playoff run.

The road will be tougher this postseason with American Canyon projected to end up in Division 2 rather than Division 4 like last year. But with how they’ve played of late, this is a confident group with experienced playmakers everywhere. It wouldn’t be a shock to see them pull a playoff upset or two.

Up next

American Canyon will look to close out the REC-Valley title on Saturday at Redwood (5-4, 3-2), while Casa Grande faces crosstown rival Petaluma (6-3, 3-2) in the Egg Bowl. The Gauchos need to win in order to have a chance to make the playoffs.