San Jose City College struck for two quick touchdowns and then
settled in to defeat the Gavilan Rams 34-13 in the Coast Conference
opener Saturday night at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex
GILROY –- San Jose City College struck for two quick touchdowns and then settled in to defeat the Gavilan Rams 34-13 in the Coast Conference opener Saturday night at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex.
Gavilan will take its 0-6 mark to Saratoga Saturday night to play a likewise 0-6 West Valley squad.
“San Jose was more physical up front,” Gavilan coach John Lango said about the Jaguars’ ability to control the ball on the ground.
San Jose City’s Omari Carr rushed for 160 yards in 21 carries to pace the visitors. Carr scored on a 27-yard run 3:11 into the game, then went two yards to paydirt on the last play of the first quarter to establish a 14-0 advantage.
“After those two touchdowns, we made some adjustments,” said Lango. San Jose went scoreless in the second quarter and managed just one touchdown in the third quarter.
“San Jose wore us down defensively, and we really didn’t tackle well,” Lango added. “We were playing all freshmen on the defensive line.”
Gavilan turned the first possession of the second half into a touchdown drive, Jamal Rice turning his only carry of the night into a 7-yard touchdown run with 11:47 left in the third quarter. Noel Galindo added the point-after kick.
The Jaguars responded with the game’s next two touchdowns. Nick Breland caught a 10-yard touchdown pass from Steve Sorce with 6:42 left in the third, leaving it 20-7 after the point-after failed. Sorce then rushed five yards to a touchdown with 11:49 left in the game to make it 27-7. Gavilan appeared to have stopped that Jaguar march when linebacker Chris Archuletta intercepted a Sorce pass and returned the ball to the San Jose City one. A roughing the passer call against the Rams negated the interception.
John Criswell, who spent a series at quarterback in the fourth quarter, caught a four-yard touchdown pass from Sean Berglund with 9:55 left in the game.
“Sean really threw a bullet on that touchdown play,” said Lango of his back-up signal-caller. Starting quarterback Cameron Hernandez was pulled because of injury in the third quarter and is not expected to play against West Valley. Hernandez threw for 104 yards on a 10-for-21 night.
Havelock Pomele completed San Jose City’s scoring effort with a 1-yard run with 7:32 left.
Criswell paced the Ram receivers with four catches, while Matt McGill and Chad West each caught three.
Lango lauded the running of West, making his first extensive duty at running back. The coach also singled out freshman defensive end Luis Padilla for consistently solid effort.
Hartnell surprised Cabrillo 34-26 and Monterey Peninsula College downed West Valley 36-9 in other conference action.
