San Ramon Valley falters from start

Signs were present as early as the opening kickoff that Friday just wasn’t going to be the San Ramon Valley-Danville football team’s night.

Two players were banged up on the kickoff, beginning a first quarter in which the Wolves gained zero yards and possessed the ball for just 1 minute, 57 seconds.

Despite regrouping for a strong second quarter, it never got significantly better as the No. 9 Wolves suffered their first loss of the season, 27-7 to visiting Monterey Trail-Elk Grove.

“Those dudes are mean,” San Ramon Valley two-way senior Tristan Sinclair said of Monterey Trail. “They play physical . ... We knew it was going to be a bare-knuckle brawl, but they just kept swinging.

“We need to practice better. I think that’s the biggest thing. We came out a bit lackadaisical this week, and we need to pick it up from here.”

The Wolves (1-1) were on their heels from the start. Monterey Trail’s opening drive was a 14-play, 83-yard clinic capped by a 1-yard scoring run by Mustangs dual-threat quarterback Zach Larrier. Larrier, who holds 14 scholarship offers as an athlete — including Pac-12 offers from Cal, Oregon State and Washington State — rushed for 169 yards and two scores and completed the night’s scoring with a 2-yard pass late in the fourth quarter. He was 9-for-13 passing for 71 yards and the touchdown.

Monterey Trail (2-0) took a 14-0 lead midway through the second quarter, but San Ramon Valley cut the lead in half with an 80-yard drive capped by a Noah Thomas 1-yard dive just before intermission.

But the Wolves’ offense couldn’t get going after the break.

“I thought our defense did pretty good overall,” San Ramon Valley coach Aaron Becker said. “We knew they were going to move the ball; we knew they were going to make a play. Offensively, we just didn’t get enough done.”

Sinclair, a Stanford commit on defense, sparked San Ramon Valley’s second-quarter offensive surge. He rushed for 70 yards on eight first-half carries. However, he didn’t get a single carry in the second half as the Wolves managed just one first down prior to getting the ball back with 2:48 to play and trailing by 20.

“On to the next one,” Sinclair said. “No better way to put it.”

San Ramon Valley’s next one will come against Riordan on Sept. 1 at Terra Nova High in Pacifica. That game is followed by a home game against Freedom-Oakley.

“I think we have a lot of potential,” Sinclair said. “We have a lot of good athletes. We just need to pull it together in practice and play better as a team.”

Chace Bryson is a freelance writer.