The Acalanes Dons JV football team kicked off their 2022 pre-season on Saturday. The team was scheduled to scrimmage multiple teams in the football equivalent of speed dating, but the contest turned into a one-on-one matchup after Vallejo backed out. The teams that remained, Acalanes and Granada, represented a rematch 10 months in the making, as the Freshman Dons suffered a season ending 55-26 loss to the same team on the same field last year. This year’s contest took on an entirely different complexion and felt more like a game than a scrimmage. In fact, after seeing a few big hits by both teams, I think I heard a fan channel their inner Duke Evers as Ivan Drago pummeled Apollo Creed in the classic movie Rocky IV, exclaiming “This was supposed to be an Exhibition!”
In this scrimmage, there was no score kept, no statistics collected, and most of the players didn’t even have numbers on their jerseys. While most sportswriters would find these challenges insurmountable, akin to Rocky Balboa defeating Ivan Drago in Russia, I found these conditions ideal given my questionable track record of factual reporting. By my tally, Acalanes scored 4 touchdowns to 1 for Granada until the end of the contest, when Granada started all their drives at the Acalanes 10-yard line. The touchdowns came courtesy of two shovel passes from Jake Colaco to Niko White, a rushing touchdown by Eitan Romick, and a beautiful touchdown pass from David Gonzales to Alek Adolphson. JB Frolich also had several long catches in the contest, including one that was stopped just short of the goal line at the end of the period. The offensive line did an excellent job protecting the quarterbacks and creating running lanes for the running backs.
The Acalanes defense bottled up the Granada offense all day. A few highlights included a near interception by Brendan Miles, Brady Wall and Colby Ebner flying around all over the field making key tackles, and Brody Greenfield taking down a player, #72, who was reminiscent of the legendary Chicago Bears lineman and occasional fullback William “the Refrigerator” Perry. Andrew Tresser and the rest of the defensive line, many of whom also pulled double duty on the offensive line, did a great job stuffing the run and putting pressure on the Granada quarterbacks. The defense did give up a few big plays, including a Hail Mary at the end of one of the periods, but was masterfully able to “bend but don’t break” as they were able to keep Granada out of the end zone.
The special teams also got some action as Eitan Romick practiced a few kickoffs, and Lucca DeBiasse converted 2 of 3 extra points.
Despite the rivalry, the teams showed mutual respect as they greeted each other at the end of the scrimmage.
Please come out and support the team in their first home game against San Marin High School on Friday, August 26th at 4:30pm.