For openers, longtime coaches impressed
Coach long enough and you think you’ve seen about everything. It’s hard to be surprised.
Longtime football coaches Tim Murphy and Terry Eidson were more than pleasantly surprised Friday, watching their teams pull out openingnight victories.
Murphy, a 23-year veteran in his seventh season as head coach of Clayton Valley-Concord, watched his depleted squad overcome a 10-0 deficit to win a 38-31, double-overtime game at Pittsburg, ranked 58th nationally heading into the season by MaxPreps.
Murphy said that by the third quarter, 10 players he had slated in the spring to be starters were out for a variety of reasons, mostly because of injury. Four of those happened Friday.
“I’m looking around thinking, ‘What is going on?’ ” Murphy said. “But I’m always preaching to the guys, ‘Next man up.’ And that’s what these guys did.
“In all my years of coaching, that may be the most heart I’ve ever had a team display. That was one hell of a talented football team we beat. Our guys left everything on the field. I couldn’t be prouder.”
Eidson, a De La Salle-Concord assistant for 38 years and the team’s defensive coordinator the past 26, was thinking largely the same thing after his team’s 14-0 win over Folsom, a team that has put up videogame numbers for a decade.
The Spartans, buoyed by a dominating performance at the defensive line that led to shorter pass routes and a smaller field for quarterback Kaiden Bennett to work, shut out the Bulldogs — the first time since 2004 that Folsom was held scoreless.
“I kept looking up at the scoreboard and seeing a zero and saying to myself, ‘I can’t believe this,’ ” Eidson said. “And then after we stopped them on their final drive and we got our final first down, it was like, ‘We’re going to shut out Folsom? I absolutely can’t believe it.’ ”
He called it “no doubt, one of the top defensive games in De La Salle history.” That’s some history. He rattled off a 35-0 win over Westlake-Westlake Village in the 2011 state-title game, a 27-10 victory over Evangel Christian Academy (La.) in 2003 and giving up a combined 22 points in two wins over Long Beach Poly 2001 and 2002 as other stout performances.
The performances by cornerback Amir Wallace (four deflections, holding Clemson bound receiver Joe Ngata in check), Isaiah Foskey (seven tackles, two sacks, one TD) and safety Shamar Garrett (two interceptions) led the way.
Murphy said with so many moving parts, the Eagles had to rely on instincts and guts.
Two-way lineman Kavika Baumgartner switched positions three times. Third-string running back Carson Sumter rushed 21 times for 74 yards, and scored the eventual winning touchdown. Cade Carter hauled in two TD passes, recorded a pick-six and recovered a late fumble that he returned 35 yards to set up a game-tying short field goal to end regulation. Christian Seeley scored his first varsity touchdown with a long punt return. Football recruiting: A few hours before the Clayton Valley game, Pittsburg defensive tackle Jacob Bandes (6-foot-3, 295 pounds) committed to Washington, picking the Huskies over Cal. He had planned to announce at the Army AllAmerican Game in January, but changed his mind . ... Freedom Oakley senior Giles Jackson, coming off a three-touchdown game during a 42-35 win over Turlock, announced on Twitter his top five college choices: Cal, Michigan, Oregon, Oregon State and USC. Briefly: Friday’s game between Monte Vista-Danville and San Leandro at Burrell Field will be streamed live by NorCalSportsTV.com . ... Most of Northern California’s top incoming junior and senior basketball players are scheduled to play in the ninth annual NorCal Clash at 3 p.m. Sunday at Chabot College in Hayward. Among the top San Francisco players are St. Ignatius senior Neal Begovich, Stuart Hall senior Miles Amos and Riordan juniors Bryce Monroe and Je’Lani Clark.