SACRAMENTO
– American River College produced its second consecutive 42-7
football victory, Gavilan College the victim Saturday afternoon on
the winners’ field.
SACRAMENTO – American River College produced its second consecutive 42-7 football victory, Gavilan College the victim Saturday afternoon on the winners’ field.
First-game mistakes negated any chance of Coach John Lango beginning his 10th campaign leading the Rams as a winner. While the offense produced several trips into the Beavers’ end of the field and the defense came up with three interceptions, the Rams broke down often on special teams and were unable to contain the host’s versatile spread offense.
While Gavilan used Saturday’s test as a season opener, American River already fashioned a 42-7 win the previous week over the Solano Falcons.
American River “showed like it was playing its second game,” said Lango. “We really looked like this was our first game. We all expect to improve this week and we know most of the mistakes we made are fixable.”
Gavilan hosts former Coast Conference rival Cabrillo Saturday at 7pm at Garcia-Elder Sports Complex.
Gavilan did strike first, taking a 7-0 lead four minutes into the contest.
“We started out well, had a three-and-out series to force a punt,” Lango said of the opening series. “On our second play after the punt, we turned a hitch-and-go into a 74-yard touchdown pass and we had the 7-0 lead.”
Mike Incardona fired the TD pass to sophomore Tim Harvey. Incardona played all but the final two series for the Rams, Lango putting Matt Edwards in during the fourth quarter. Harvey took game receiving honors with 139 yards.
American River racked up 467 yards in total offense, sparked by three rushing touchdowns from Mike Dutra. Quarterback Jared Gavard added a six-run touchdown run and a 58-yard scoring strike to Taylor Wilkinson.
The Rams could not convert three first-half scoring chances when two field goals were missed and another drive was lost on a fumble into the ARC endzone. More critical to the Rams’ victory chances were a pair of punt situations that helped the Beavers to a 35-7 halftime edge.
American River blocked a Gavilan punt in the first quarter, taking over possession on the Ram one to set up a Dutra score.
Beaver defensive tackle Harrison Wilfley managed the play of the game late in the first quarter. When the Beavers faced a fourth-and-13 at the ARC 32 with a 14-7 lead, Lango sent out his punt return squad. Instead, Wilfley took a short snap and broke three tackles to cover the 68 yards to a 21-7 advantage.
“We had a lot of young guys playing in key positions,” said Lango. “Our offensive line played well and Incardona managed the game well. We made some adjustments at halftime and limited them to one touchdown.”
Arthur Pittman, Ryan Costa and Dante Young each had an interception for Gavilan, Costa’s coming in the Ram endzone to stop one Beaver drive.
