GILROY – The Gavilan College Rams complete the pre-Coast
Conference portion of the schedule tonight with a stern test,
taking on the Bulldogs of College of San Mateo at 7 p.m. at Mustang
Stadium.
GILROY – The Gavilan College Rams complete the pre-Coast Conference portion of the schedule tonight with a stern test, taking on the Bulldogs of College of San Mateo at 7 p.m. at Mustang Stadium.
While coach John Lango of the Rams admits that this year’s Bulldogs may have slipped slightly, Gavilan remains a solid underdog against the NorCal Conference stalwart.
Coach Larry Owens, in his 17th season directing the Bulldogs, brings a 3-1 club to town. San Mateo is ranked 13th in the state, among the top three teams in California with a single loss. Gavilan, 3-1, entered the top 25 for the first time this season at 24 after a 22-15 win over Diablo Valley last Saturday.
Gavilan will follow tonight’s meeting with a bye before opening conference action Oct. 16.
“San Mateo’s big up front, although not as big as they’ve been,” said Lango of the visitors. “They can both run and pass (724 rush, 663 pass yards in four games). On defense we try to take away whichever part of the offense the opponent is good at, but San Mateo’s really balanced.
“Special teams is very important. San Mateo has great returners, but we had success last week covering kick-offs. Our punting team needs some work.”
Sophomore Joe Griffin is among the leading rushers in the state with 388 yards and four touchdowns to go with a 6.8 yards per carry average for San Mateo. Quarterback Kevin Linnell, a freshman, is the 11th ranked passer in the state.
“Joe’s an Eric Dickerson type of running back,” said Owens of his top ball-carrier. “He’s tall and lanky, hits the holes well.”
Owens noted that his team is “really inconsistent, a very young team this year. We’re not real happy with how we’ve been playing. Gavilan’s a better team than they had last year. This game should come down to mistakes. We were able to win last week (over San Jose City College) but still made some mistakes.”
Gavilan, already considered among the favorites for the Coast Conference title, may learn how much the team has improved over last season with a strong showing tonight.
San Mateo has faced a Lango-coached team in each of the past three seasons, earning wins by lopsided scores of 53-7, 58-10 and 44-12.
“We do have a chance to win,” added Lango. The fifth-year coach will not hold out any players in favor of waiting for conference play in two weeks.
“I’m going to do everything I can to win this game,” Lango said. “Our confidence level would be greatly enhanced by winning this game, although the conference will still be attainable no matter what happens.”
Redshirt freshman Will Kilday will start under center for the fifth straight game for Gavilan. Lango pulled Kilday for Rhett Van De Mark in the second quarter against Diablo Valley.
“We’ll start Will, although Van De Mark’s ready to go,” said Lango. “We have to solidify that position. We need to be mistake-free at that position. Sometimes the quarterback tries to do too much, tries to change the calls too often. Sometimes it’s better to just run the play that was called.”
