Looking to quickly move past a 71-14 loss to De Anza to open the
regular season last week, the Gavilan Rams take on another Golden
Gate Conference opponent when the Merced College Blue Devils host a
nonconference football game Saturday at 6 p.m. Gavilan coach
Spencer Gilford has recent experience in games with the Blue
Devils. While Merced has improved over last year’s 2-8 campaign,
the first-year Rams coach has cautioned his charges that Merced is
not as complete a team as De Anza
GILROY
Looking to quickly move past a 71-14 loss to De Anza to open the regular season last week, the Gavilan Rams take on another Golden Gate Conference opponent when the Merced College Blue Devils host a nonconference football game Saturday at 6 p.m.
Gavilan coach Spencer Gilford has recent experience in games with the Blue Devils. While Merced has improved over last year’s 2-8 campaign, the first-year Rams coach has cautioned his charges that Merced is not as complete a team as De Anza.
“Merced’s traditionally been a running team,” Gilford said following Tuesday night’s practice. “They got behind against San Joaquin Delta and had to throw a lot.”
Merced fell 41-28 to the Mustangs in Week 1.
Gilford pointed out tight end Alex Young (6 foot 5, 230 pounds from Hilmar High) as one of the top weapons in the Blue Devils offense. Held without a touchdown catch, Young led the Blue Devils with six catches for 58 yards.
Freshman quarterback Trevor Mew (6 foot 2, 215 pounds out of Ceres) threw for 327 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions last weekend. Trunell McMillon and Jarrell Davis each caught touchdowns.
Merced was limited to 35 net rushing yards in 33 plays against San Joaquin Delta, with Darnodo Smith the leading rusher with 15 yards.
Coming off the De Anza game, Gilford expects an improvement on both sides of the ball by the young Rams.
“Merced has fewer formations,” Gilford said. “They do what they do well. This is preseason for us. We play five games before we get to conference play. Our players have shown a good attitude in practice. We know we made mistakes last game, but these are things we can clean up.”
Notes: Gavilan had a 10-point lead over Merced last year only to fall 30-28 on the way to a 1-9 finish. Rob Cozart, Gavilan’s associate coach and defensive coordinator, had planned to join the Merced College football staff in February of this year after eight seasons as Patterson High’s varsity football coach. In March Cozart accepted a position at Gavilan from Gilford as the newly named coach began to develop his own staff.
