Vacaville football rolls against Wood
By Tim Roe
Posted: 11/14/2009 06:23:46 AM PST
You can't play ball-control if you don't have the ball.
That fact was hit home to Will C. Wood High School's football team Friday night at the Black and Blue Bowl. The Wildcats, who vowed to keep Vacaville's high-octane offense off the field, didn't see the ball until they already were in a 14-point hole.
Matters didn't get a whole lot better after that point as Vacaville rolled to a 54-13 victory at Tom Zunino Stadium, the Bulldogs' 12th win in a row in the city rivalry.
The fact that the Bulldogs clinched the Monticello Empire League title outright with a 5-0 record and improved to 9-1 overall entering next week's Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs wasn't a shock.
The method was the surprise.
The Bulldogs opened the game with an onside kick, scored on the next play, and then tried another onside kick ... and succeeded.
"We knew they were going to try some ball-control things, and we wanted to have some opportunities right away," Vacaville head coach Mike Papadopoulos explained. "Everybody did such a super job that it made it a lot easier to work everybody in and keep everyone healthy."
The early surprises weren't confined to the special teams. Immediately after Keith Leenders executed a perfect opening onside kick that teammate A.J. Roberts recovered, Vacaville quarterback Tyler Irwin fired a 35-yard scoring pass to Blakelyn Birks.
Leenders added the extra point, and the Bulldogs had the lead for good 12 seconds into the game.
Why not?
Leenders added another onside kick, and Kalani Agbigay pounced on this one.
Five plays later, the Bulldogs scored again, this time on a 10-yard run by Quincy Forte.
"It makes it hard when you have to play catch-up," admitted Wood head coach Mike Boles, who added that he "probably" coached his last game with the Wildcat varsity team.
"We tried to adjust and make some changes for them, but they weren't going to work if we got too far behind," Boles added. "Vacaville did a very good job. They're an excellent team, and they took control."
Vacaville scored again on its third possession on a 49-yard run by Jeff Beasley, and the Bulldogs got two more points on a safety when a high center snap forced Wood's punter to step out of the back of the end zone.
By the time the teams settled into their regular offenses, the game was out of reach.
Vacaville added heavy doses of star running back Jimmy Hines, who finished with 171 yards rushing on just 15 carries, including touchdown runs of 38, five and six yards.
"We wanted to make a statement," Hines said. "We knew they would play us tough, but we're tougher."
Wood finally did unveil its ball-control attack, featuring three of its biggest linemen -- Kole
Siaki, Jeremiah Foalima and Troy Burton -- in a (very) full-house backfield.
They paved the way on both of Wood's scoring drives. The first was capped off by a 2-yard scoring pass from Bryan Stansbury to Brandon Justin, who wrestled the ball away from a Vacaville defender.
Wood also scored late in the fourth quarter on a 10-yard pass from Brian Clay to Matt Tusup.
Irwin and Birks added a 30-yard scoring hook-up, and Leenders kicked a 29-yard field goal.
Wood finished the year 2-8, 2-3 in MEL games.
Vacaville will discover its first-round playoff opponent when pairings are announced tonight.
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