SAN RAMON – San Ramon Valley’s Marco Jones is listed as a linebacker on the Wolves’ roster, and as a four-star prospect on college recruiting websites.
But against Cal High, the 6-foot-4 junior looked like a five-star at running-back, safety and wide receiver too in San Ramon Valley’s 14-0 victory on Friday night, scoring both of SRV’s touchdowns while blanketing the entire field on defense with his athleticism.
San Ramon Valley had six days to process its grueling 33-27 overtime loss to De La Salle, a game where SRV authored a 15-point comeback in the final four minutes to put itself in a position to snap De La Salle’s 31-year section winning streak.
Jones said it didn’t take long for the team to move on from the defeat, and that he was ready to prepare for a talented new opponent in Cal High.
“It feels good to get it out of the way,” Jones said, with quarterback Luke Baker adding, “We knew it was kind of a trap game, and tried to mentally battle through that.”
While the normally high-flying offense looked sluggish in the aftermath of such a draining game, Jones and a frenetic defense was ready to go from the first play until the final snap. SRV held Cal High to 250 yards from scrimmage, picking up the slack from an offense that had trouble sustaining drives.
“Sometimes, you just have to win ugly,” SRV coach Aaron Becker said.
San Ramon Valley held a 7-0 lead until the fourth quarter, when Jones’ found a soft spot between the linebackers and safeties on the right sideline.
He hauled in Baker’s high-arcing pass, and followed blockers into the end zone to give SRV a 14-0 lead with 10:46 left in the game.
What set up that one-play touchdown drive? Just one of three Wolves interceptions in the second half. Jack Horton, Dylan Deitsch and Max Ellis all came up with one Cal High pass, and were the beneficiaries of a ferocious SRV pass rush led by senior end Mitch Bruno.
“We had to put that (De La Salle game) behind us, strap up, and do our assignments,” Bruno said.
Cal High’s star RB Devan Love, who also played a big part in the secondary at safety, rued the team’s mistakes on both sides of the ball.
“They played the game of the year last week, but we’ve got guys too,” Love said. “We’re a good team, and it showed tonight. We’ve just got to pick some things up.”
The defenses set the tone in the first half, with Cal High defending Luke Baker’s passing game as well as any team this season.
The Grizzlies, led by defensive backs such as Stavi Booras, held SRV to just 67 passing yards on 16 first half attempts, and to under 300 total yards for the whole game.
“I’m so proud of those kids,” Calcagno said of his defense. “It was a good game plan, and the kids played hard.”
But Jones and the SRV defense picked up the slack, keeping Cal’s talented offense out of the end zone on four first-half drives. On Cal’s best drive of the half, Jones ripped through the line on a short field goal attempt and blocked it.
San Ramon Valley finally broke through at the end of the first half, with Baker and company going on a 14-play, six-minute drive. Baker completed 15 of 27 passes for 158 yards.
Jones capped the drive off with 37 seconds to go in the half, lining up deep in the I-formation and punching the ball into the end zone for a two-yard touchdown to give SRV a 7-0 lead it would take into halftime.
It wasn’t the prettiest second half either, but Becker was impressed by his team’s resiliency as it defeated Cal High for the fifth consecutive time.
“It was hard to judge where their mind was going to be at and how they were going to play until they got out there,” Becker said.
San Ramon Valley stays in pole position for the No. 2 seed in the North Coast Section Division I playoffs. Undefeated Pittsburg defeated California by just three points earlier in the season, and SRV routed BVAL opponent Liberty 66-12.
California (5-3, 1-1) plays host to Clayton Valley and Foothill for its final two games. San Ramon Valley (7-1, 2-1) travels to Foothill next week, before ending the regular season with a home game against Danville rival Monte Vista.
“We feel great,” Bruno said. “We want to be league champs, and on defense, we want zeroes on the scoreboard after every game.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com