By DON DELCO

Dana Hemmingsen woke up at 3 a.m. in a panic the day before the Acalanes freshman football team would play host to Clayton Valley. Hemmingsen, the head coach and defensive coordinator, just spent the past two days heaping an abundance of responsibility on the Dons’ defense.

“Maybe I threw too much at these guys,” Hemmingson said he wondered that morning.

A day later, Clayton Valley used a three-touchdown third quarter to get past Acalanes 28-3. The final score did not tell the entire story.

“I allowed the kids to make the calls this week,” Hemmingsen said. “We had a base defensive scheme and a hot call off that, meaning someone would blitz based on Clayton Valley’s offensive formation. The kids made the strength call — what side to line up on — got their alignment situated, called out the formation and if I made it hot, they had to call out a blitz or stunt. We got some very smart, intelligent kids and they did a spectacular job doing that while still playing fast. That is high-level freshman play.”

And it worked to perfection for the first half. Acalanes led 3-0 at the midway break thanks to a 29-yard field goal by Nico Beuchotte on the first play of the second quarter. Meanwhile, the Clayton Valley offense ran 13 plays from scrimmage in the first half, and averaged only 3.6 yards per play. Acalanes’ ball control offense ate up almost half of the first-half clock. Two of the Dons’ three possessions lasted more than four minutes.

“(Clayton Valley) came out in that second half and knew they had to do something different,” Hemmingsen said. “Obviously, our defensive play was every effective in that first half.”

Clayton Valley pulled its starting quarterback, Wyatt Rodgers, in favor of a four-player backfield that Hemmingsen called a “power-crunch formation.” The Ugly Eagles proceeded to run the ball effectively on 21 of its 26 second-half plays. Not only did Clayton Valley change its offensive scheme, its three third-quarter touchdowns began with an average starting field position of the Acalanes’ 35-yard line.

“Our lack of offensive possession time and their drives starting with excellent field position, allowed them to dictated things in the third quarter,” Hemmingsen said. “They were able to be hyper-focused on what they wanted to do offensively.”

Ironically, Clayton Valley took the lead on a touchdown pass, as running back Tyler Reyes faked like he was running to the outside and threw to an open Mason Kramer who snuck behind the Dons’ defense for a 42-yard touchdown reception with 7 minutes, 46 seconds left in the third quarter. From there, three consecutive Acalanes possessions ended with interceptions, and Clayton Valley converted each turnover with a touchdown run by Reyes (1 yard), Carlos Soto (1 yard) and Carl Cox (13 yards). Cox was the Ugly Eagles leading rusher with 92 yards on 10 carries.

“After the game, I told their coach that we had them in the first half and he said that we did,” Hemmingsen said. “He was sincere in that. They came out in the second half and did what they did and we allowed it to happen. Not from scheme, just from possession time, field position and turnovers were significant in that.”

Tate Foster led Acalanes with 16 yards on nine carries and Trey Renno caught four balls for 27 yards. Dylan Andersen and Massimo Cangini each had a quarterback sack, Caelen Birrell had an interception and Kai Harmeyer and Yannick Ngako each had one tackle for a loss.

FIFTH QUARTER — For the first time since the Sept. 17 home game against College Park, Acalanes played in a scout-team fifth quarter.

The Dons ran 14 plays from scrimmage and were unable to find the end zone. Quarterback Trey Renno completed passes to Nico Beuchotte, Connor Lederman, Declan Tseng and Teddy Woolway. On the ground, Beuchotte had two carries for 15 yards, A.J. Jeffery had one carry for 7 yards and Connor Lederman and Baron Schweitzer added one carry each.

Clayton Valley scored three touchdowns on nine plays from scrimmage. However, Acalanes recorded two sacks by Beuchotte and Shreyansh Gundra while Jeffery, Kamden Min and Malcolm Payne had one tackle each.

GAME CAPTAINS — Dylan Andersen, Caelen Birrell, Eli Cooley and Kai Harmeyer

SCOUT TEAM PLAYER OF THE WEEK — Lucas Hansen

NEXT GAME — Acalanes remains in Lafayette for its season finale game against rival Campolindo. 

The Cougars enter the game 3-5 after losing to Liberty 21-14 on Thursday, Oct. 22 snapping a two-game winning streak. Campolindo started the season with losses to Granada (35-7 on Aug. 27), College Park (14-6 on Sept. 3) and Monte Vista (14-7 on Sept. 10) before earning its first win over Las Lomas (35-0 on Sept. 17). Campo lost again to California (14-0 on Sept. 24) before winning its next two over Miramonte (27-8 on Oct. 8) and Castro Valley (41-14 on Oct. 15). Last season, Campolindo beat Acalanes 6-0.

“I want them to maintain focus,” Hemmingsen said. “Especially with freshmen, they’re going to be all fired up, but I want to balance out that emotion. The way to win is for all 11 players on both sides of the ball to go out, execute their assignment and do their job to the best of their ability and play fast and furious on every snap. That’s how you win.”