Biggs heads to Stockton Saturday for play-in game
What a ride it’s been for the Biggs High football team.
A season that began with a coaching change and a fire that gutted the grandstands and press box at Del Kalbach Stadium came to a thrilling climax last week when the Wolverines held off defending champion Fall River for a thrilling 21-20 victory in the Northern Section Division V title game. Now, the stakes get even higher. Fresh off their first section crown since 2002, the Wolverines will travel to Stockton on Saturday to take on Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII champion Brookside Christian, with the winner advancing to a CIF Northern California Regional Bowl Game.
WHEN: WHERE: WHAT:
Kickoff for Saturday’s play-in game is scheduled for noon at Bear Creek High, and the victor will play in a NorCal bowl game on either Dec. 9 or 10. Bowl game matchups for the entire state will be released on Sunday.
This is uncharted territory for a school of 169 students nestled in a town of only 1,700 residents, and first-year coach Tyler Rutledge said everyone around the community has been buzzing with anticipation all week.
“It’s the first time anybody in Biggs has been playing football in December. It’s a small town, and everybody is talking about it,” Rutledge said. “The community is taking a rooters bus to the game and people are happy and excited. It’s a good time to be in Biggs right now.”
The Wolverines (10-2) come into the game riding high after stuffing Fall River on a 2-point conversion on the final play to claim the Northern Section title and punch a ticket into today’s play-in game.
Leading the way for Biggs all year has been senior Lukini Lualemana, who has rushed for
1,781 yards and 23 touchdowns through 12 games. The 6-foot, 210pound fullback is averaging 7.7 yards per carry and has caught a team-high 19 passes for an additional 257 yards and three more scores.
Lualemana has also been at his best down the stretch, rushing for 1,287 yards and 20 touchdowns over the Wolverines’ current seven-game winning streak.
He’s not the Wolverines’ only weapon, either.
Junior Brian Caro (849 yards, 10 TDs), and seniors Luis Gonzalez (711 yards, 6 TDs) and Matt Mize (258 yards, 3 TDs) have each produced big games running the ball out of the backfield and have helped Biggs pile up nearly 4,000 yards on the ground.
Another player who has come up big this season has been sophomore quarterback Tucker Bennett, who has passed for 754 yards and nine touchdowns. Bennett is also a ball-hawk on the defensive side of the ball at safety, where his six interceptions are tops on the team.
Mize has posted a team-high 93 tackles and Eli Munoz has recorded 13 sacks to help the cause defensively for the Wolverines.
“I really feel like the loss to Chester really changed the season. We were 3-2 and we could have packed it in and decided to be a .500 team,” Rutledge said of his team’s loss on Sept. 23. “Since then, we’ve won three one-point games and all three were decided by 2-point conversions. I’ve never heard of a team doing that before.
“Defensively, we settled in and started to realize that’s what we needed to do to be successful as a team.”
Brookside Christian (8-4) only has 18 players on its roster, and after losing its first three games and starting the season 1-4, is riding a seven-game winning streak of its own into Saturday’s matchup. The Knights’ last loss came in a 33-26 setback to defending section champion Stone Ridge Christian on Sept. 24, but they returned the favor with a 54-21 win over Stone Ridge in last week’s section title game.
“I don’t think (Biggs) has played anybody like us,” Brookside Christian coach Jordan McGowan told the Stockton Record earlier this week. “I don’t think they’ve seen the city speed that Brookside plays with.”
Playing at this level is nothing new for the private school of 119 students located near University of the Pacific in Stockton. The Knights played in the Division IV state championship game in 2010, where they lost 40-14 to Southern California champ The Bishop’s School of La Jolla.
While Biggs prefers to keep the ball on the ground and pound teams into submission running out of the wing-T, Brookside Christian takes a completely different approach while scoring 498 points and rolling up nearly 6,000 yards of total offense through its 12 games.
Sophomore quarterback Quincy Glasper is the pilot of the Knight’s pass-happy air raid offense and has thrown for 3,003 yards with 37 touchdowns and 20 interceptions on the year. Senior Justin Williams is Glasper’s top target in the passing game, hauling in 64 receptions for 1,177 yards to go with 17 touchdowns.
The Knights aren’t one-dimensional and can also run the ball well, as junior Reuben Lee has rushed for 1,579 yards and has scored 19 touchdowns to lead Brookside Christian on the ground.
On defense, the Knights are led by sophomore linebacker Jalen Williams, whose 173 tackles leads the Sac-Joaquin Section and ranks fifth in the state.
“They definitely have some tremendous athletes. They like to throw the ball and they have a stellar running back, so they’re definitely a quality opponent,” Rutledge said. “The biggest thing for us is to control the line of scrimmage. They have a tendency to make mistakes and they try to score fast, and we’re going to try and score slow.”