LIVERMORE, CA - The varsity contest Friday night in Livermore was almost a mirror image of the JV contest just an hour before. Fumbles, onside kicks, penalties, and controversy made this an entertaining contest. San Ramon Valley pulled off a huge 31-26 road win over Granada behind great plays from both the offense and the defense. With a showdown with California looming next week, SRV had a game on its hands from the opening kick.
Coach Tim Silva made his game plan clear from the opening drive: control tempo and the clock. Granada had a seven-minute opening drive capped with a Matthew Dremalas field goal. In this drive, Granada had a touchdown run by Tyler Offill called back due to holding. Offill had arguably his best game ever as a Matador, and it was almost enough for a victory.
The entire night, however, the Wolves had an answer. Running back Marcus De La Pena had an outstanding game, rushing for 139 yards on 30 carries. His offensive line opened up huge holes for him all game.
“My credit goes to my O-line and all the coaches,” said De La Pena. “We just take every game one game at a time and try not to get ahead of ourselves.”
He answered Granada’s opening drive with a two-yard touchdown rush. SRV held a 7-3 lead at the end of the first despite Granada’s dominant time of possession. Both offenses came out aggressive, and both defenses struggled early on.
With seven minutes left in the second quarter, Offill hooked up with playmaker Javonn Williams for a huge 46-yard completion. Two plays later Offill punched it in to give Granada a 10-7 lead. After an SRV three-and-out, Granada’s Colton Paynter blocked a punt which put the Matadors in excellent field position. Paynter had an excellent game, making several tackles and also a sack.
San Ramon’s defense was the story of the game with numerous big plays. After the blocked punt, Granada killed themselves with penalties at the goal line. The Wolves held Granada to just a field goal, making it 13-7 with 1:30 left in the half.
“The defense played well all night,” said De La Pena. “We struggled a little bit but we played a good all around game.”
With 34 seconds left in the half, SRV picked off a Tyler Offill pass and returned it 40 yards into Granada territory. As time expired, the Wolves kicked a field goal to make it 13-10 at halftime.
San Ramon Valley’s philosophy was very aggressive all game, often going for it on fourth down. The Wolves struck first coming out of the locker room with a Matt Winaker 60-yard touchdown pass. Granada focused on stopping De La Pena, which opened up things in the play action passing game. SRV had the lead back at 17-13 and seemed to gain some momentum.
Javonn Williams and the Granada offense answered nicely with a string of big plays. Williams returned the kickoff all the way to midfield, which set the Matadors up with good field position. A few plays later, Offill found Javonn Williams with a 35-yard touchdown pass to take the lead 20-17. Granada didn’t break as many big runs as games past, but made up for it with huge plays in the air. Williams finished with six catches for 135 yards and a touchdown.
In the next drive, Winaker missed a wide-open receiver for what would have been a touchdown. Thankfully for San Ramon, De La Pena had a beautiful one-handed catch the very next play to put the Wolves inside Granada’s 10 yard line. De La Pena fumbled the next snap, but fell on it immediately. The Wolves would settle for a field goal, making it 20-20 at the end of the third quarter.
Granada also used star running back Casey Soltis as a wildcat quarterback, but this came back to bite them at the beginning of the fourth when SRV recorded a key interception. With 9:20 left in the fourth, San Ramon retook the lead with a 22-yard field goal. The defense was on point for most of the fourth quarter.
Granada’s next drive stalled with 6:32 remaining, and Silva elected to go for it on fourth-and-two from their own 44-yard line. Offill tried to use the snap count to draw a defender offside, but Granada’s own lineman flinched, causing a false start and a punt. San Ramon would capitalize with a Winaker 32-yard touchdown pass on a beautiful throw over the top of the safeties. The Wolves led 31-20 with 4:30 remaining. Winaker’s touch on throws were exceptional all night.
The biggest blow in this game came when Offill was injured with 4:04 remaining. After the game, he said he had a bruised knee. He originally thought he had a concussion as well, but the trainers confirmed this was not the case.
Backup quarterback Brian Barnett came in and executed the offense to perfection in Offill’s absence, teamed up again with Williams and punching it in with a two-yard touchdown run. The Wolves stopped the two-point conversion, making it 31-26 with 1:59 left to go.
In the JV game earlier in the day, Granada used a surprise formation for the onside kick. Instead of getting set, they immediately ran up and kicked the ball straight up the middle, trying to catch SRV off guard. The JV team almost recovered, but the varsity team wanted to change the story. The ball deflected off a SRV player and Granada recovered. The fans went crazy, but the referees said the ball only went nine yards. Silva argued that the ball deflected backwards after it hit Wolf, but the referees stood by their call.
SRV sealed the game on the next drive, but not without drama. A fumble on second down was nearly recovered by Granada, but SRV fell on it just in time. There was some pushing and shoving afterwards and the referees had to restrain the players. SRV won in the end, picking up a crucial road win to move to 4-3 on the season.
“It’s very exciting to get a road win in league, this was a tough place to play with a good 12th man, so it’s a good win for us,” De La Pena said.
With timely interceptions, a great running attack, and a well coached team, the Wolves are one win from qualifying for the NCS playoffs. SRV’s grueling schedule continues next week with a game against Cal, which is coming off a 31-28 nail-biting win against Monte Vista.
