A 47-year-old rivalry adds another chapter Saturday at 1 p.m.
when the Gavilan College Rams play the Cabrillo College Seahawks
for the 48th consecutive season at Garcia-Elder Complex.
A 47-year-old rivalry adds another chapter Saturday at 1 p.m. when the Gavilan College Rams play the Cabrillo College Seahawks for the 48th consecutive season at Garcia-Elder Complex.
While the Coast Conference crown is out of the picture for both squads, both teams will be seeking a second consecutive victory in the season finale.
Gavilan upended Hartnell 12-7 Saturday to snap an eight-game losing streak. Cabrillo (2-7) produced 504 yards of total offense, including 384 yards on the ground, in a 49-24 win over West Valley.
“We’ll try to build off last week’s execution in all phases of the game,” Cabrillo coach Bill Garrison said of the Hawks’ explosion over the Vikings.
“We try to control the things we can control,” Garrison added. “Gavilan’s very sound in their approach. They’ve shown big-play offense ability. Their quarterback (Cameron Hernandez) has done some nice things the last two weeks.”
Gavilan coach John Lango has a 4-6 career mark against Cabrillo, the only school to have been on the Rams’ schedule every fall since the program began in 1963.
“We’ve got to eliminate turnovers on offense and generate turnovers on defense,” Lango said of the potential difference-maker this weekend.
“We did not have many 3-and-outs against Hartnell, which helped us with field position and kept our defense off the field,” said Lango.
“Cabrillo’s well-coached, very aggressive on both sides of the ball,” added Lango.
The Seahawks will either go with Jerry Alvarez or Gino Delucchi at quarterback. Alvarez, who sat out the West Valley game with a hamstring injury, has passed for 1193 yards and 12 touchdowns. Fernando Olivarez, out of Watsonville High, is the conference leader in touchdown receptions with nine. Daryl Copeland leads the Cabrillo ground attack with 566 yards and two touchdowns.
Hernandez has covered 1138 yards and nine touchdowns with a 107-for-212 passing mark for the Rams.
Gavilan’s most recent win over Cabrillo came in 2006, a 20-19 squeaker. The Hawks followed with wins of 38-10, 20-13 and 38-13.
