The American Canyon High football team has been known for its explosive offense but in Thursday’s 17-10 CIF Sac Joaquin Section Div. III playoff win over No. 10 seeded River Valley (Yuba City), the No. 7 seeded Wolves showed that the defense can make a stand of its own.
With the win, the Wolves are 7-3 are winners of seven straight after an 0-3 start. American Canyon will travel to face the No. 2 seeded Manteca Buffaloes on Friday. The Wolves’ numbers bear out that the defense has been solid during the seven game winning streak, giving up average of just 16 points per contest in that span, it is also hard to quantify exactly how good the unit has been because the offense has staked the team to early leads.
Much of the narrative surrounding the Wolves seven game winning streak has been the insertion of running back Eddie Byrdsong into the lineup. His physical running style has been well chronicled as a compliment to the speed of Brenden Johnson, Kama Aalona and quarterback LaVar Seay. The accolades have been warranted with the Wolves averaging 34.7 points per game in that span.
Two of the last three contests, however, the Wolves defense has saved the team’s bacon when they were needed most. Rewind to Oct. 27 in a 27-20 win over Vanden. The Vikings led the Wolves 20-13 after three quarters with that lead standing until the 5:18 mark of the game when Aalona’s touchdown followed by Jose Lopez’s extra point tied the game at 20-20. Point being, the Wolves’ defense held the line to put the offense in position to tie the game and subsequently take the lead.
On the ensuing possession, American Canyon’s defense forced a three and out which led to Alec Hoover’s blocked punt giving the Wolves’ offense the ball at the Vanden 20. Moments later Seay scores on an 8-yard run with 1:46 left in the game. When Vanden’s offense trotted back on the field, Wolves’ linebacker Kekoa Wilson’s interception sealed the game. Good night, drive home safely.
In the team’s win over River Valley, points were hard earned. The Falcons gained 478 yards of total offense, running 73 plays, but only scored 10 points thanks to the Wolves defense getting timely stops and forcing three turnovers. To make a baseball analogy to the plays/yardage ratio, that’s like scoring one run and leaving 12 runners on base.
To further examine the Wolves’ defense in the seven-game winning streak, Phil Steele, who publishes an annual college football preview magazine that contains more information than a New York City telephone book, has many metrics.
I’m not one to go crazy over analytics but there is one stat that piqued my interest, yards per point. Offensively, you want to average less than 10 yards per point. Defensively, you want your average to be greater than 10 yards per point. That theory makes sense on the surface because if an offense rolls up 350 yards but only scores 20 points, they are not getting the most out of that production.
Over the last seven games, the Wolves defense has allowed 17.2 yards per point. The defense will need to rise up strong again on Friday against a potent Buffaloes’ offense that for the season averages 8.11 yards per point.
The two teams do not have a common opponent but the closest connection is Benicia, which is American Canyon’s fellow SCAC school. Christian Brothers, which is the No. 3 seed in the SJS Div. III bracket, blanked Benicia 59-0. One week earlier in the regular season finale, the Wolves defeated Benicia 41-7.
The Buffaloes, who railroaded No. 15 seeded Rio Americano 62-21, have just two defeats this season in a loaded Valley Oak League. Manteca’s two losses came against fellow VOL schools Oakdale (36-15) and Central Catholic-Modesto (31-14). Oakdale is the No. 1 seed in the Div. III bracket while Central Catholic is the No. 3 seed in the Div. II bracket.
Since the aforementioned loss to Oakdale on Oct. 6, Manteca has outscored its opposition 282-75. The Buffaloes are an equally balanced attack between the passing game led by quarterback Gino Campiotti, who has thrown 23 touchdown passes and just three interceptions. Manteca has rushed for 1,742 yards with a committee like approach with Tabron Russell (67 carries, 668 yards, 13 touchdowns) being the leading ground gainer.
The Wolves are in for a difficult task. The biggest key when facing daunting foe is, just give yourself a chance to win. American Canyon does not necessarily need a fast start. This is not Bethel or Fairfield where the team could jump to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter and call it curtains. The key is, don’t let the Buffaloes get up 21-0.
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