Thanksgiving may fall on a Thursday but the American Canyon High football team can satisfy its hunger to an even greater extent one day later.
The No. 2 seeded Wolves ushered the No. 7 seeded Yuba City Honkers out of the CIF Sac Joaquin Section Div. III playoffs with a 39-8 win.
“It’s one of those things where it doesn’t happen very often,” Wolves head coach Larry Singer said of the Thanksgiving and football combination. “It’s happened just one other time in school history. We get to do it again and it is just awesome.”
The Wolves will host No. 3 Christian Brothers (Sacramento), which defeated Burbank 21-14, in the semifinals on Friday at 7 p.m. American Canyon reached the semifinals in 2012, losing to eventual SJS Div. III champ Oakdale. In 2013, Christian Brothers, which was the No. 8 seed, upset top-seeded American Canyon 30-27.
Though the Wolves have had bigger victory margins, in the grand spectrum, Friday’s triumph was their most complete win of the season when one considers the quality of opponent.
On offense, the Wolves generated 577 yards of total offense (449 rushing, 128 passing) behind the offensive line of Jonathan Roeder, Lucas Gramlick, Lorenzo Peterson, Paulo Respicio and Nelson Jarquin-Aleman. On defense, the Wolves limited the Honkers to just 264 yards on 62 offensive snaps.
“It was a complete effort all the way around,” Singer said. “I think the boys put together a complete game on offense, defense and special teams. They didn’t get any big plays on us. They didn’t have any really long runs. They are a big, physical team. We don’t get a lot of big boys but the boys we get have passion. They came out and played hard tonight.”
On offense, Andrew Rapacon amassed 168 yards on 18 carries with two touchdowns, coming from 72 and 2 yards away. Quarterback Darren Antes scored on a 25-yard run and threw for two more scores of 40 yards to Lavar Seay and 21 yards to Gamon Howard, Kama Aalona scored on a 85 yard run.
Defensively, Rapacon had three impact tackles (gains of 0-3 yards). Isaiah Abdalla, Eric Gresham, Vaughn Johnson, Alfredo Calderon and Peterson each had one. Carlos Chavarria had two tackles for loss while Peterson, Ethan Hughes and Aalona each had one. Howard added a quarterback sack. Howard and Seay each had interceptions.
“They did a great job of getting hats to the ball tonight,” Singer said. “Being disciplined and wrapping up with their tackles was important. That’s something we’ve struggled with. Everyone wants a woo hit. You have to wrap up, especially against big boys like this that will churn their legs. Hats off to No. 5 (Brenndon Schalowitz). That kid is a tough runner. He can ground and pound.”
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