American Canyon came to Lafayette on Friday with the résumé of a team accustomed to controlling games. The Wolves were 4-0, had outscored their opponents 155-34, and had won their previous three games by 29, 37 and 42 points. Acalanes did not appear especially impressed.
The opening kickoff was a hard, low squib, but Reese Caicedo deftly snagged the pigskin cleanly and returned it to the 46-yard line. The Dons had excellent field position, although their first possession ended quickly with a four-play turnover on downs.
That brought Aiden Jeffrey onto the field for his first JV action after returning from the Varsity squad. He announced his return immediately. On American Canyon’s first offensive play, Jeffrey shot into the backfield and dropped the Wolves’ lead runner with a punishing tackle for a loss. Caicedo followed with another strong stop, AJ Bishop added one of his own, and Lelan Stone and Jeffrey combined on several tackles as Acalanes began establishing what would become a theme for the afternoon: get multiple defenders to the football (e.g., below).
The approach was intentional. American Canyon had shown a preference for running the ball behind multiple capable backs and a mobile quarterback, so the Dons coaches alertly added another linebacker to the defensive mix. Much of the time, the adjustment worked, with Acalanes defending the run less as a collection of individual tacklers than as a swarm.
Still, penalties and a strong quarterback run carried the Wolves to the one-yard line. American Canyon’s No. 0, a large, bruising running back, finished the drive from there. The Wolves added the two-point conversion and led 8-0.
The response began on special teams.
Jack Debban gathered another low kickoff and produced one of Acalanes’ best returns of the season, weaving and powering his way down the home sideline and deep into American Canyon territory.
From there, Lightning got the first turn. Jayden Lifson ripped off a series of quality chunk runs behind a stout offensive line, finding creases and cutting through the defense. Will Feinstein then added a sharp run of his own on what appeared, at least to this correspondent, to have been an intentionally designed quarterback play.
Then came Thunder. Facing third-and-short near the end of the first quarter, Andre Lewis drove ahead for the first down. The quarter ended with Acalanes sitting at first-and-goal from the eight. Lewis finished the job as the second quarter began, attacking downhill and breaking into the end zone. He then followed with another forceful run on the conversion to tie the game at 8-8.
Feinstein’s ensuing line-drive kick carried into the end zone, sending American Canyon back to its 20.
The next Wolves possession again began with Acalanes converging on the football. Lifson, Jeffrey, Beau Tandler and Samson Salvador joined in bringing down American Canyon’s big back. The Dons appeared to have forced a fourth-down stop, but a favorable spot extended the drive.
William Griffin and Tandler then came up with stops for no gain and helped create a third-and-11 from around the 30. But American Canyon answered through the air, connecting deep for a touchdown and taking a 14-8 lead. Acalanes prevented any further damage; the two-point run disappeared beneath a coordinated pile before reaching the goal line.
Stone’s next kickoff return carried the Dons close to midfield, and Jeffrey managed to make himself useful on offense as well. From his spot on the line, he alertly caught a deflected Feinstein pass and turned a potentially problematic play into positive yardage. But the possession eventually stalled, and Acalanes punted.
Late in the half, the Wolves hit another deep pass. Lifson chased down the receiver and made a shoestring tackle that likely prevented a touchdown.
American Canyon still reached the red zone, but the Dons refused to surrender the final few yards. On fourth-and-nine from the nine, Stone Jaquet delivered the stop that ended the drive, preserving a tight 14-8 halftime score.
Halftime produced one of the more encouraging non-game moments of the afternoon for this correspondent. Zenai Kaplanes-Jones, whose return from a football foot injury is thankfully approaching, spent part of the break making an impressive series of scintillating one-handed and over the shoulder catches along the sideline.
The second half began much as expected, with American Canyon returning to its ground game and again repeatedly feeding No. 0.
Then Bishop issued a statement of his own. When the Wolves attempted to throw, Bishop broke through for a huge sack. The Acalanes defense kept applying pressure until American Canyon eventually faced fourth-and-22 and had to punt.
On the next Don possession, Feinstein found Stone for a nice completion and then targeted him deep again, drawing a pass-interference penalty that advanced the ball to the American Canyon 45. The drive ended there with another turnover on downs.
The Wolves then stretched the lead with a touchdown pass into the end zone. Again, however, Acalanes stopped the conversion attempt on the ground, keeping the score at 22-8.
That was when the game tightened considerably.
Stone returned the kickoff to the 41 and then came down with a contested deep pass from Feinstein.
This time, Thunder rumbled first.
Lewis hammered away on successive chunk gains, fighting through contact and helping move the chains behind an offensive front that continued competing against American Canyon’s size and physicality. Feinstein then broke loose for another significant gain with his legs. And Lightning finished it.
Lifson slipped through the line and into the end zone, then came back moments later and ran in the two-point conversion.
As the Grateful Dead once put it, “If the thunder don’t get you then the lightning will.”
On Friday, the combination had suddenly brought Acalanes to within six.
American Canyon 22, Acalanes 16.
A team that had been beating opponents by more than 30 points per game on average was now protecting a one-score lead, deep in the fourth quarter.
Late in the game, the Dons had possession and an opportunity to make the closing minutes extremely uncomfortable for the undefeated Wolves.
Acalanes began moving down the field.
The drive was alive, and a potential tying score remained within reach, when a pile of American Canyon players untimely managed to knock the ball free in traffic and recover the fumble. It was a tough ending to one of the Dons’ strongest drives of the afternoon.
The Wolves then used most of the remaining clock before adding a final touchdown. For the third time that afternoon, Acalanes stopped the two-point attempt.
The final was 28-16. And yet, that score tells only part of the story.
Against an undefeated opponent that had overwhelmed most of its September competition, Acalanes stayed within striking distance for four quarters, repeatedly challenged American Canyon’s run game, stopped all three late two-point attempts, and still possessed the ball late with a chance to pull ahead.
Special teams remained a strength. Luke Kelly, Kanishka Giridhar, Max Von Vacano-Shafer, August Van Ornum, Sam Spicer and their teammates continued did the important work in coverage, maintaining lanes and limiting easy field position opportunities.
On defense, Luke Fratarcangeli also made himself known to the opposition with several important stops as Acalanes continued sending bodies toward the football. Salvador and Brady Michelson also rotated through at tight end, relieving Stone, with Kellan Middleton subbing in at running back, contributing to the less visible work that accompanied the Dons’ effort to keep moving the ball and keep teammate fresh.
After the game concluded, Head Coach Nat Beeman distilled the evening into a single assessment.
“The kids played their asses off,” Beeman said, not mincing words, “but little things show up on Friday that they missed during the week.”
There is probably a season’s worth of football wisdom in that sentence.
Friday demonstrated what the Dons can look like when they play fast, physical and together. The remaining challenge is to make sure the little things Coach Beeman sees during the week do not become larger problems once the Friday lights come on.
And so Alden’s dad now signs off, impressed by a Don team that discovered Friday that mettle is not measured by the final score, but by whether you keep answering the bell. Against an undefeated opponent accustomed to putting teams away early, the Dons kept answering until there were no bells left to ring.
This correspondent now turns his attention to tonight’s Homecoming festivities, where he will be serving as a poker dealer and maintaining, entirely coincidentally, an excellent and strategic vantage point from which to quietly observe whether the same sound judgment and strong character displayed on the football field hopefully carries over into the evening.…
