Rams struggle offensively and lose to Falcons 21-7
Gilroy – The Gavilan Rams stumbled out of the gate of a 10-game football season Saturday night with a 21-7 setback to the Solano Falcons at Garcia-Elder Complex.
The start of coach John Lango’s seventh campaign directing the Rams gridiron fortunes was unsuccessful as they notched just one touchdown, failed to convert a Falcon turnover on the Solano 9, and finished with five turnovers.
The Rams, embarking on a six-game pre-conference schedule, will try to bounce back Saturday night with a visit to Modesto College.
“We thought we could run the ball,” Lango said.
Instead, the Rams came up with 71 yards on 34 carries. Freshman tailback Justin Sweeney was effective with 84 yards in 20 rushes. Matt Perkins added 14 yards on five tries, Mike Ginther 11 yards on three rushes. The Solano defensive pressure produced 30 yards in quarterback sacks.
Quarterback Sam Moultrie was “disappointing” according to Lango. The sophomore produced 99 yards by connecting on nine of 19 passes, one score and two interceptions.
“We have to be perfect with what we do,” Lango said of the offense. “We make mistakes we can’t afford to have happen. We have to be able to finish drives. With all that, our offensive line did play well. The running game will get going.”
The Falcons banked on 24-year-old sophomore quarterback Mike Neville to lead them to 374 yards in total offense. Neville went 18-for-30 through the air for 256 yards.
“We made lots of mistakes,” noted Solano coach Floyd Burnsed. “(Neville) can play much better. We started 10 freshmen on defense, but even though we are young, we played fairly well.”
Neville opened the scoring with 7:53 left in the first quarter by finding wideout Chris Johnson open for a 46-yard scoring toss.
The Falcons gained a 14-0 cushion when freshman Bobby Guillory jetted 10 yards to paydirt with 11:40 left in the first half.
Gavilan responded with a 64-yard touchdown march. The 12-play drive was kept alive by a 23-yard pass from Moultrie to Jeremy Burns on a third-and-12 call. Art Esparza’s grab of a 6-yard Moultrie pass with 5:21 left in the half accounted for the lone Ram touchdown.
The Rams had an opportunity to pull even in the third quarter when Neville’s lone intercepted pass gave Gavilan the ball at the Falcon 9. Two plays later, a fumble in the backfield was recovered by Solano.
Solano put the game away when Neville dove over from the 1 with nine minutes remaining in the contest. The Falcons turned Moultrie’s second intercepted pass into a 24-yard return to the Gavilan 29, setting up the decisive scoring march.
Solano produced 18 first downs, Gavilan 11. Esparza finished with three grabs for 37 yards, Brad Cintas two for 16 yards.
