DANVILLE — What unfolded on Friday night between De La Salle and San Ramon Valley might never be forgotten by anyone who was there to see it.
The fourth quarter was wild, zany, unbelievable.
It ended with San Ramon Valley, which trailed by 15 points with less than four minutes to play, missing a 36-yard field goal with 5.1 seconds left that would have broken a tie and ended De La Salle’s 32-year unbeaten streak against North Coast Section opponents.
In overtime, after SRV didn’t score on its possession, Derrick Blanche ran across the goal line for the winning touchdown, the 6-yard run giving De La Salle an absolutely remarkable 33-27 victory.
“I’ve been coaching for 26, 27 years,” DLS coach Justin Alumbaugh said. “I’ve never had a quarter like that. This place was packed and everybody got their money’s worth. A lot of resilience showed on both sides of the field tonight.”
SRV coach Aaron Becker called it “one of the wildest ones that I’ve been a part of. It went from by all rites being over to all of a sudden we’re in it.”
The final quarter started with San Ramon Valley leading 12-7, a margin the Wolves maintained after Marco Jones — who had an incredible game on defense and offense — stripped the ball from a DLS runner 8 yards from the end zone and Dylan Deitsch recovered.
But the low-scoring, defensive battle turned quickly.
After Trisshon Wright intercepted a pass to give DLS (5-2) the ball at its 30, quarterback Toa Faavae avoided Jones’ pressure in the backfield and launched a deep pass to Johnathan Guererro, who was wide-open in the middle of the field after the defender fell down.
Guererro’s 70-yard touchdown reception gave DLS a 13-12 lead. (The two-point try was no good).
On SRV’s next offensive play, Luke Baker’s pass deflected off of his receiver and into the arms of defensive back Jayden Nicholas, who ran 19 yards into the end zone to extend the Spartans’ advantage to 20-12.
When Faavae scored on a 12-yard run around the right end to make it 27-12 with 5:08 left, spectators on the SRV side started to head for the exits.
But the home team was far from done.
Baker, who scrambled for huge gains all night, ran on fourth-and-5 for 47 yards to the DLS 14.
The quarterback rushed for 11 yards two plays later and then threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Zack Dodson to cut the margin to 27-19 with 3:24 left.
The ensuing onside kick bounced off a DLS player and a mad scramble followed. SRV (6-1) pointed that it had recovered, but the referee signaled that it was DLS’s ball.
Then, after a brief meeting among the officials, the call was reversed.
SRV took over at the DLS 45 with 3:08 left.
Baker, who ran for 179 yards and passed for 191, scrambled for 13 yards to the 32. Then he threw an 8-yard pass to Jones. After two more scrambles, the senior completed a 6-yard strike to Evan Economos to pull SRV to within two.
After an SRV timeout, the Wolves ran a reverse to Owen Scott, who dived into the end zone to even the score 27-27 with 1:43 left.
Bedlam on the SRV sideline.
“It’s easy to give up to De La Salle when you’re down two scores,” Baker said. “Things didn’t go our way. Get the ball back, down a point. First play, tipped ball, pick-six. Go down eight. Then we punted the next drive and got down two touchdowns. We had no momentum.
“The game feels like it’s over. People are leaving. I am so proud of the guys. We were able to string together some long drives. Really proud of my guys for the grit and mental toughness they displayed.”
After SRV tied the score, DLS fumbled and the home team recovered at the visitor’s 43 with 47.4 seconds left.
The Wolves got to the 19 before sending out their field-goal team with 9.1 seconds on the clock.
DLS called timeout.
“We wanted to line them up in a specific situation where we thought we could pressure the kicker a little bit,” Alumbaugh said. “Get them thinking a little bit.”
The kick sailed wide left.
In overtime, another field-goal attempt that would have given SRV the advantage missed to the right.
DLS, like SRV, started its overtime possession 25 yards from the end zone. The Spartans ran four plays, all on the ground, and ended the game with Blanche scoring between the tackles from 6 yards out.
“A classic high school game,” Blanche said. “That’s a hell of a team, a really good team. We had to fall back on the work we’ve put in and push all the way until the end.”
And when the game finally ended with Blanche’s TD, the running back said, “That is the best feeling in the world. That feeling is indescribable.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com