Record: 2-3 overall, 0-2 in Golden Coast League
Last week: The Rams were on their bye week. They lost 52-10 to West Hills Coalinga on Oct. 4 at home.
Next up: Gavilan plays at Cabrillo (0-5 overall, 0-2 in league) at 7 p.m. Oct. 18. The Seahawks are also coming off their bye week; they lost to Monterey 31-15 on Oct. 4.
Coach Spencer Gilford’s comment: “(We need) to get back on track. … I think it’s going to be helpful for us to restart this second half of the season like another season and really starting from scratch. We’re 0-0 and this is the second part of the season—season 1B, so to speak.”
On offense: The Rams are coming off their lowest scoring performance of the year after putting up 30-plus points in Weeks 3 and 4 and 60-plus in Weeks 1 and 2. Gilford said he’s looking for better ball protection this week, after fumbling four times against West Hills—two of which were lost.
“We need to win the turnover battle,” Gilford said. “We’ve had a bad trend of losing the turnover battle these last three games and it’s not a surprise that’s turned into three loses in a row.”
The O-line, Gilford said, needs to do a better job of protecting QB Drew Fryhoff, who has been sacked four times in the last three games. Fryhoff also needs to work on protecting himself by releasing the ball quicker. He’s been stellar for the Rams this season, throwing for 1,216 yards and 12 touchdowns.
On defense: Gavilan needs to do a better job of creating turnovers. It has recovered three fumbles since conference play began, but Gilford said it needs to do a better job of applying pressure to its opponents. The Seahawks are averaging just 17.8 a game heading into this contest and the Rams intend to keep those numbers low.
“We hope that we can have a good showing because we’ve had some time to get back to the basics that we needed to,” Gilford said.
Keys to the game: Turnovers and execution will be key for Gavilan this week. Gilford is hopeful that the week off will help his team refocus, in turn leading to better execution in all three phases of the game. As always, turnovers will be key. The Rams need to provide better ball protection in order to secure their first league win.
