PLEASANTON, CA - In another defensive battle, the Amador Valley Dons (5-2, 2-2) escaped with a narrow 10-7 victory over Livermore (2-5, 0-3), and clinched their second straight playoff spot.
Although Amador came out with a close victory, this could’ve easily been a loss, and they would have to possibly wait another week to qualify for NCS. But the Dons were destined to succeed here, a fact which their fans—who stormed the field as the clock expired—could certainly be happy about.
“Honestly, it feels great to finally have enough wins to qualify for NCS,” said senior running back Michael White. “That’s what we wanted to do tonight, and we found a way to get it done.”
Mitchell Copenhaver’s 11 yard touchdown run with 11:01 remaining gave Amador the lead for good, but Livermore managed to almost complete the comeback.
Livermore drove into Amador territory due in large part to big runs from running backs Timmy Harris and Jacob House. After an intentional grounding penalty, however, the Cowboys drive was halted after senior receiver Andrei Kasten fumbled, and the Dons recovered, thus ending the thrilling game.
This could have turned out as a 14-10 victory for Livermore. They got all the way down to the Amador Valley one-yard line on their opening possession, but quarterback Travis Adams was stopped just short of the end zone capping off a 12 play drive, which was continued after a successful fake punt on 4th and 24, and didn’t result in any points for the Cowboys.
Despite the fact that Livermore came out on the losing end, they were neck-and-neck throughout. Their defense came through, and helped them stay in the game.
Defensively, Amador came up huge. They held running backs Timmy Harris and Jacob House to a combined 90 yards, and held Livermore’s offense to 204 total yards.
“We just never give up. Our defense played great, kept us in the game,” White stated. “Even though our offense couldn’t get a drive going. It’s all on our defense to never quit.”
Not only did the Dons hold the Cowboys to just over 200 yards, but they forced quarterback Travis Adams to have to throw the ball away, or throw into coverage, where a Dons player came up with it. They held Adams to 4-of-10 passing for 80 yards, one touchdown, and an interception.
The Cowboys lone touchdown came with 3:32 left in the fourth quarter as they took a 7-3 lead on a 49-yard touchdown pass from Travis Adams to Timmy Harris, who bulldozed his way through the Dons defense for the score.
Offensively, Amador couldn’t get much going. They had a few big plays through the air, but sophomore quarterback Ronnie Jones finished with just 83 yards passing.
“[We’ve] got to find a way to keep drives going and move the ball up and down the field more efficiently,” White said.
Michael White had another impressive performance totaling 115 yards on 21 carries, but didn’t feel his statistics indicate his performance.
“It wasn’t my best game,” he said.
Penalties plagued the Dons offense. They racked up 78 penalty yards, and hampered multiple drives.
This was a much needed victory for the Dons. Coming off two tough losses to Cal and San Ramon Valley, the win helped to restore confidence, and brought a great amount of energy to the players and coaching staff.
“It feels great,” said White. “[We’ve] just got to keep playing hard these next three weeks on the road, but it feels great to finally get a win.”
