PLEASANTON – The Clayton Valley Charter defense and special teams propped up the Ugly Eagles football team until its offense started clicking Friday night at Amador Valley.
But once the CVC offense got into gear, it was a sight to behold. With its new spread offense, Ugly Eagles quarterback Christian Aguilar threw for 296 of his 317 passing yards in the final three quarters of a 47-14 victory.
“We’ve transitioned this entire offense from a run-heavy offense to now a pass-happy offense, so we’re still going through some growing pains, but we’ve definitely made a bounce-back since our first two games,” said CVC coach Tim Murphy, who is using the spread as his base offense for the first time in his long career.
Clayton Valley started the season 0-2, but is now 3-3 overall and 1-0 in the East Bay Athletic League Mountain Division. Amador Valley fell to 4-2, 0-1.
Clayton Valley Charter, 18th in the Bay Area News Group football rankings, lost two fumbles in its first three possessions against the No. 13 Dons. Amador Valley took advantage of the first one to take a 7-0 lead, as Jake Goldsworthy scored on a 1-yard run.
But the Ugly Eagles immediately answered with a 94-yard kick return for a touchdown by Micah Avery, and CVC’s Jake Dern ended the Dons’ next drive with an interception. Later in the first couple, the Ugly Eagles’ Charles Cox III scooped up a fumble on the Amador Valley 30-yard line and returned the ball into the end zone for a 12-7 CVC advantage. Clayton Valley Charter had only 22 yards of total offense in the first quarter, yet led by five points.
Murphy was thrilled with his special teams’ performance.
“I love that,” Murphy said. “People underestimate, and I did the first 10 years of my career, how important special teams are … Special teams can make or break you, especially as you play good teams with good defenses. I was happy all the way around.”
On its first possession of the second quarter, Clayton Valley lengthened its lead to 20-7 on a 53-yard pass from Aguilar to Daven Amos, followed by a two-point conversion run by Marques Richards. Amos, a 6-foot-3, 180-pound junior, finished with eight receptions for 99 yards.
Amos then caught his second TD pass from Aguilar by snagging the ball over his left shoulder on the left corner of the end zone for a 6-yard reception with seven seconds left in the first half. A two-point conversion run by Aguilar gave Clayton Valley Charter a 28-7 halftime advantage.
“I just saw a glimpse of the ball, and then I went up and I just grabbed it,” said Amos about that touchdown catch.
Clayton Valley Charter also produced touchdowns on its first two drives of the second half. It took seven minutes off the clock on a 76-yard drive, which ended with a three-yard scoring run by Makhi Prosser. Aguilar’s final pass with 10:50 left in the game was a 13-yard touchdown to Hank Phifer, a junior who caught six passes for a team-high 112 yards in the game. Emilio Strange added eight receptions for 65 yards for CVC.
Aguilar, a senior, completed 26 of his 34 pass attempts, and had three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Amador Valley narrowed the score to 41-14 with a 19-yard touchdown pass from Drew Souza to Brady Nassar and a point-after-touchdown kick by Riley Balch with 4:59 remaining. CVC’s Hayezon Jackson had an 11-yard touchdown run for the final points of the game.
Goldsworthy had a game-high 57 rushing yards for Amador Valley.
Source: www.mercurynews.com