GILROY Daniel Cruz threw for 324 yards and four touchdowns
Saturday night as the DeAnza Dons edged the Gavilan Rams 28-25 in
Coast Conference football at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex.
GILROY

Daniel Cruz threw for 324 yards and four touchdowns Saturday night as the DeAnza Dons edged the Gavilan Rams 28-25 in Coast Conference football at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex.

The Rams (0-3, 2-7) were able to erase a 15-point lead before the Dons answered with a third Cruz TD pass to wide-out Arvelle Thompson in the fourth quarter.

Gavilan’s Nick Kalantari completed 19 of 48 passes worth 232 yards and three touchdowns. The Rams complete the season Saturday night at home to the 3-0 Cabrillo Seahawks.

“I’m very proud, very happy,” said DeAnza coach Dan Atencio. “It was another classic Gavilan game, hard-hitting. We made one or two less errors and that was the difference. Our top players, Cruz, Chantz Staden and Thompson, really played well.”

Gavilan’s John Lango, who became the head coaching in 2000 after two seasons handled by Atencio, lauded his team’s offense.

“We were finally able to sustain some drives,” said Lango. The Rams finished with 20 first downs and 330 yards in total offense. “We had a couple of dropped passes that hurt us, that could have made the difference. Nick played well for us and Timmy (Lango) ran hard (17 carries for 69 yards).”

DeAnza, coming off a 52-40 loss to Cabrillo two weeks ago, struck for a touchdown on the game’s first series and never trailed.

Cruz, a freshman from Piedmont High School, passed on five of the six plays needed to cover 58 yards to paydirt.

After Cruz opened the game with a 35-yard pitch to Tyler Miller, Cruz converted a fourth-and-four call at the Ram 17 when he shook off a potential sacker to flip a 16-yard pass to tight end John Fernandez at the one. Cruz rolled left on the next play and zipped a scoring pass to Lawrence Taylor. Matt Snyder’s PAT kick at 12:35 gave the Dons a 7-0 lead.

Gavilan forced a DeAnza fumble the next series the Dons had the football. The Rams found themselves in trouble when Kevin Pham’s punt was allowed to be downed at the Gavilan one. One the first play, Kalantari mishandled the snap, Lango picked up the loose ball and was swarmed down in the end zone for a safety and 9-0 DeAnza cushion with 7:46 left in the opening quarter.

After Taylor Micali sacked Cruz to set up a fourth-and-long for the Dons, Micali intercepted a Cruz pass at the Ram 20. Gavilan responded with a crisp 10-play drive over 80 yards to make it 9-7.

Lango ignited the drive with dashes of 13 and 14 yards. Kalantari shook off a second-and-17 by finding Thomas Woods open for 18. Kalantari hooked up with Blair Wortham in the right corner of the end zone for a 15-yard scoring strike with 29 seconds left in the quarter.

Cruz connected on three throws at Thompson in the next series as DeAnza covered 64 yards in six plays for a 15-7 lead with 13:09 left in the half. Thompson turned a quick slant into a 35-yard touchdown when he split the Ram defense. Snyder’s point-after bounded off the right upright to leave the DeAnza lead at eight points.

Two series later, the Dons struck for another Cruz-Thompson TD pass, this time for 21 yards with 8:03 to play until halftime.

Three series later, the Rams cut into the 22-7 deficit when Woods caught a Kalantari 23-yard TD pass behind the Dons secondary with 24 seconds left in the half. Ram defender McDouglas Osakue set up the 38-yard drive with a fumble recovery on a Cruz sack. Michael Blewett’s PAT kick left the Rams down 22-14.

Another Micali sack forced a DeAnza punt midway through the third quarter. Tight end Steven Conner kept the drive alive when he pulled in a high toss along the right sideline for 24 yards on a third-and-eight. Passes of 15 yards to Woods and 17 yards to Lango moved the Rams to the eight. Kalantari found Conner at the two and the tight end barreled his way over a defender for the touchdown. Kalantari pitched a two-point PAT pass to Jeremy Burns to make it 22-22.

Two DeAnza series later, the visitors took a 28-22 lead when Cruz lofted a pass behind the Ram defense for 15 yards to Thompson. Snyder again hit the upright to leave the DeAnza lead at six points.

Blewett converted a 36-yard field goal with 8:21 left to make it 28-25. The Rams had two more series with the ball and converted two first downs each time before suffering interceptions.

Staden, the state’s scoring leader, was held out of the end zone but managed 139 yards in 23 carries for the Dons. Thompson finished with 10 catches for 154 yards and the three scores. Woods and Wortham each caught five Kalantari passes.

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