Lodi lines up another Bay Area team for Friday

The Lodi High football team has filled the gap on its schedule for this week, and will travel to Alameda on Friday to play Encinal.

This week was originally supposed to be Lodi’s bye week, but the Flames’ opener on Aug. 20 against Grant in Sacramento was postponed due to COVID-19 issues. Grant later decided to keep its bye week, leaving Lodi scrambling for a non-league opponent. The game was finalized on Monday. Lodi (2-1) is coming off a victory over another Bay Area school — Lincoln of San Francisco came to town last week to suffer a 38-7 beating at the hands of the Flames. That game was originally going to be against Valley of Sacramento, which pulled out due to injury and illnesses.

Encinal, out of the North Coast Section, is 2-0 with wins over Newark Memorial (486) and Alameda (41-7).

“They’re a spread team, they like to chuck it around a little bit,” said Lodi coach George Duenas. “Their quarterback’s pretty good, from what I’ve seen.”

Lodi is much the opposite, relying more on the run game.

“They’re going to throw it 80 percent of the time,” Duenas said. “They run it to distract you. Just so you have to practice it. Like us, we’ll throw it every once in a while just so you have to practice it.”

On the other side of the ball, Encinal runs a 3-3 stack defense, something Tokay faced last week in a 25-0 win over Concord.

Lodi is scheduled to finish its preseason slate with Encinal this week and GregoriModesto the following Friday before getting into Tri-City Athletic League play, where things will change when it comes to teams not being able to play.

“When it comes to league season, you’re kind of stuck. If a team can’t play, it’s considered a forfeit,” Duenas said. “You can’t pick up another game. In the preseason, you have more flexibility.”