The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday because it is the busiest shopping day of the year.
The American Canyon High football team, which has black and gold in its color scheme, will be shopping for a victory that would send them to the CIF Sac Joaquin Section Div-III title game for the first time in school history. The Wolves enter the game ranked 12th in the maxpreps.com SJS poll (accounting for all divisions). American Canyon and Christian Brothers are tied for No. 25 in the Prep2Prep.com poll (also accounting for all divisions).
The hurdle the No. 2 seeded Wolves (11-1) will have to clear Friday is the No. 3 seeded Christian Brothers Falcons at Wolf Den Stadium for a 7 p.m. kickoff in the semifinals. The last time the Wolves played this deep into the postseason was 2012, losing 42-19 at eventual champion Oakdale. Speaking of Oakdale, the top-seeded Mustangs host No. 5 seeded Merced on Friday.
The Wolves have a score to settle with Christian Brothers. In 2013, the No. 8 seeded Falcons reached into American Canyon’s chest cavity and tore its heart out with a 30-27 upset over the top-seeded Wolves. Though revenge can be an overplayed angle, that is recent enough to resonate. The current seniors were freshmen at the time. Though they were JV players, they were in the program. Assistant coaches Chris Rapacon, Chris Yepson and Joe Beachum were members of then head coach Ian MacMillan’s staff and remain members of current head coach Larry Singer’s staff. At that time, Singer was the Wolves’ JV head coach.
However, once the ball is kicked off, the revenge angle goes out the window. From there, it’s a question of which team executes its game plan and scheme better. Sure, that notion sounds trite but self-inflicted wounds become magnified at this stage of the season.
The Falcons enter this game 10-2, losing their first two games to Manteca and Jesuit (Carmichael), 39-6 and 25-7 respectively. Manteca is the No. 1 seed in the SJS D-IV bracket while Jesuit is the No. 4 seed in the SJS D-II bracket. Christian Brothers has won ten straight since those defeats by an average margin of 39.8-17.6. The Falcons defeated No. 14 Cordova and No. 11 Burbank in the playoffs 30-20 and 21-14 respectively.
American Canyon, meanwhile, has spent the 2016 boat-racing teams by an average margin of 50.7-19.8 with the lone hiccup being a 24-21 Game 6 loss at Vanden. The Wolves offense has resembled a rushing version of the Greatest Show on Turf in amassing over 4,000 rushing yards in 12 contest engineering by quarterback Darren Antes. The running backs have akin to the pick your poison approach between the speed and shiftiness of Anthony Gobert and Kama Aalona along with the freight-train approach of Andrew Rapacon.
The Wolves have also shined defensively but because this unit has played with monster leads, it is easy to overlook them. The positive sign for American Canyon was that its tackling, which has been spotty, was much better in Friday’s quarterfinal win, 39-8 over Yuba City.
American Canyon’s defense will have to be on point against a diversified Falcons attack. Christian Brothers’ quarterback Tyler Vander Waal (178-291-23-7-2,630) spreads the ball around to receivers Matt Marengo (61-983-6), Spencer Webb (36-597-4). The Falcons running game has a by committee approach as Jamarri Jackson poses as a two-way threat. Jackson has 69 carries for 511 yards and eight scores. As a receiver, he has 27 grabs for 467 yards and five touchdowns. Carlos Stahl (43-302-4) and Aarmon Euwing (64-258-9) also receive ample carries.
The team the Wolves faced that is most similar in this approach was Wood (Vacaville), which American Canyon beat 71-36. Granted, at 5-5, Wood is not in Christian Brothers’ galaxy but quarterback like the Falcons with Vander Waal, Wood had Carson Strong leading a diversified attack. Wood threw the ball 27 games per game compared to Christian Brothers’ 24 times per contest. The only difference is that Wood was less committee oriented in its ground attack with Daniel Macfadden and Christian Catlin accounting for 91.4% of the Wildcats’ rushing yardage.
In that game, the Wolves offense offset Wood’s diverse attack by scoring on 10 of 11 possessions. Though Wood’s offense gained 402 yards of offense, it took 69 plays to accomplish that feat. This game is similar, Christian Brothers will get its yardage, the key is making the Falcons burn up 8-12 plays to try scoring.
Another advantage for the Wolves in this contest is the special teams. Gobert has three kickoff returns for a score while Aalona has a kickoff and punt return for a score. Having a dangerous return man is an advantage even if the opponent tries to kick away from them because it can create field position edges.
The teams have one common opponent -- El Camino, which earned the No. 15 seed in the SJS D-III playoffs and competes in the Capital League with Christian Brothers. American Canyon beat El Camino 64-42 to open the postseason. Christian Brothers beat El camino 37-27.
Fasten your seat belts. It should be a good ballgame.
See ya Friday.
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