BENICIA – Last season it was El Cerrito that staged a furious second-half comeback in the semifinals of the North Coast Section Division III playoffs, rallying from a 27-point deficit before losing to Windsor by a point.
Windsor returned the favor Friday night, coming back from a 28-point third-quarter hole before losing to El Cerrito 34-27 in the NCS D-III final at Benicia High. Kamani Jackson’s second interception of the game, this one with 1:08 left to play, gave the undefeated Gauchos their first NCS title since 2013.
Next up for El Cerrito (13-0) is the CIF NorCal Regionals. Pairings will be announced Sunday. Gauchos coach Jacob Rincon said he’s heard Grant-Sacramento is a possibility. The Pacers (10-2) beat Christian Brothers 20-12 Friday night for the Sac-Joaquin Section D-III title.
“I just want a home game,” said Rincon, which doesn’t seem too much to ask given the Gauchos’ record.
El Cerrito and Windsor appeared to be headed for a running clock (one team leads by at least 35 points) when Tony McAdoo scored on a 54-yard run five plays into the second half. McAdoo’s run boosted the Gauchos’ lead to 34-6. It was the third successive drive that resulted in a touchdown for the Tri-County Athletic League Rock Division champs.
It was also the third touchdown of the game for McAdoo, a lightning-quick 5-foot-8, 165-pound senior, pushing him over 200 rushing yards for the game. He finished with 267 yards on 21 carries, many of them on sweeps.
Windsor (10-2) responded with a 12-play, 68-yard march that consumed 5:19 of the third period and closed the gap to 34-13. The Jaguars then scored on a 31-yard pass play from quarterback Judson Anderson to younger brother Hayden Anderson, making it 34-20.
Game on.
The Jaguars stopped El Cerrito on its next three drives, then scored on a 13-yard pass from Anderson to Max McFerren. The point after was good and only seven points separated the teams.
“Windsor did a great job of making adjustments at the half and holding us to only one score in the second half,” Rincon said.
Of course, wiping out a four-touchdown deficit is no easy task, especially against a defense as good as El Cerrito’s. The Gauchos had only yielded 62 points in their first 12 games. None of their prior opponents had scored more than 13 points.
After the Windsor touchdown that cut El Cerrito’s lead to seven, the Jaguars tried a successful onside kick, recovering the ball at the Gauchos’ 49-yard line. Windsor’s first two plays lost eight yards, then the Jaguars threw their third interception of the game. They had four turnovers in all.
“We kind of slowed down in the second half,” said Gauchos’ cornerback Warren Smith, a top Bay Area recruit who is committed to Washington State. “But this team (Windsor) fights for all four quarters. We knew that and had to put our foot down.”
Said senior safety Jermaine Hargraves, “We did a lot of things good, we did a lot of things bad. We’ve got to fix what we did bad and get ready for next week.”
Windsor had 411 total yards to 382 for El Cerrito. The Jaguars passed for 191 yards and two touchdowns. But those four turnovers, compared to one for El Cerrito, obviously had an impact.
Now the Gauchos go for win number 14. They have never had a 14-win season in the MaxPreps era, which began in 2004. They were 13-1 in 2012, losing in the NCS finals to Marin Catholic.
Rincon said this season is helping make up for last year. El Cerrito was 9-3, its season coming to an end in that wild 33-32 semifinal against Windsor. But the coach was mostly talking about an off-field issue that led him to being suspended while an investigation was conducted.
A 2019 video of El Cerrito conducting a practice drill called the “machine gun drill” was widely circulated and drew the attention of former NFL and UCLA coach Jim Mora Jr. and ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit. Both Mora and Herbstreit were critical. The investigation found that Rincon wasn’t at the drill and the assistant who OK’d it was eventually fired.
“Last year after I went through what I went through,” Rincon said, “I asked God to give me one more chance. Given an opportunity, I wanted to make the most of it.”
He has until now, with one more opportunity waiting next weekend.
Source: www.mercurynews.com