FLAMES THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN
With other area teams on their bye, Lodi hosts Bear Creek
Now the Lodi High football team is back at its usual home field.
Today at 7:15 p.m. at the Grape Bowl, Lodi welcomes Bear Creek in an intra-district non-league game. This is also Lodi’s homecoming game.
Both Lodi (3-1) and Bear Creek (0-4) begin league play a week from today. Lodi opens Tri-City Athletic League action, also at the Grape Bowl, against Lincoln (5-0) while Bear Creek entertains Chavez (3-2).
“We’re just trying to get a little healthy now, so hopefully we’ll have a nice finish to our pre-season,” said Lodi coach George Duenas of this week’s practices.
Lodi is the only area high school football team in action tonight. Tokay (1-4), Galt (4-1) and Liberty Ranch (2-3), which started their seasons Week 0/Aug. 23, have the bye this week. The Flames opened their season against Ceres at the Grape Bowl on Aug. 30 with a 51-0 victory.
The Flames are one of only two TCAL teams wrapping up their pre-season action tonight. Defending league champion St. Mary’s (1-3) will host Northern California powerhouse De La Salle of Concord (4-1), which beat Folsom (3-1) 42-27 on Sept. 13 and Central Catholic of Modesto (1-4) 49-14 on Aug. 30.
This week’s practices for Lodi were players learning are understanding more of their roles on all three sides of the football — offense, defense and special teams.
Duenas noted that six starters have been out of the Flames’ line-up in recent weeks.
“We get a couple back this week,” Duenas said. “We’re starting to get healthy again. They are looking a little better (in this week’s practices). We’ve had guys playing different positions.”
Will Lodi’s homecoming be a distraction entering tonight’s game? Duenas is split on this area.
“Homecoming can be a distraction, but I think the guys are doing a decent job with practices,” Duenas said. “We have an opportunity to come out and execute, put ourselves in a good spot going into league.”
On offense, Lodi is averaging 29.7 points per game. Flames running back Christian Zamora is the leader in rushing with 504 yards on 43 carries and nine touchdowns. Quarterback Logan Stout has 90 yards on 20 carries and two touchdowns,
plus two more throwing TDs for a combined four. Running back Zazzarino has seven receptions for 116 yards and two touchdowns.
On defense, Lodi has given up an average of 15.7 points per game. Flame linebackers Jose Bravo and Isaac Bishop have 16 and 15 tackles respectively. Defensive back Myles Lozano has 14.
Lodi faces a Bear Creek squad that has been blown out in three of its four losses. In a Aug. 30 game against Tokay at Podesto Field, the Bruins held a 48-14 halftime lead on the Tigers. Then Tokay rallied in the second half to post a wild 56-55 win in a game that last approximately four hours.
“Bear Creek still has a couple of guys that can hurt you,” Duenas said. “They have a linebacker that flies around, causes havoc. And, they have a defensive end that’s pretty good, too. They have a couple of guys that if you don’t come out prepared, they have the ability to snake bite you.”
Duenas was already thinking ahead in last week’s game at Edison (5-0), which posted a 48-6 win over the Flames. The head coach and his assistant coaches started substituting freely in the second half after the Vikings had built momentum halfway through the second quarter that led to the win.
“We subbed out in the third quarter when we saw we didn’t have an opportunity to win the game because we wanted to stay healthy,” Duenas said.
On Sept. 13, Lodi beat Stagg 41-15 at Tokay’s Hubbard Field. The non-league contest was held there instead of the Grape Bowl because of the annual Grape Festival. Among it and Tokay, Lodi became the first city school to win a game on the renovated field.