Last year’s playoff run was too full of promise to have ended so abruptly. Coaches, players, parents, students, alumni, teachers, administrators, and the whole Acalanes community have been looking forward to another shot at a long run in the NCS. Tonight we get our chance. All the work that the coaches and players have been putting in since Spring, their first real off-season since COVID, comes to a head tonight. All the weight room, field, film, Tahoe Camp, everything has led up to this run.

This year’s team is fast, strong, experienced, and deep. From the speed of Ellis Burger, Kyle Bielawski, Ethan Torres, Andrew Habas, Trevor Rogers, and Paul Kuhner, to the power of Tyler Murphy, Marcus Julian, Victor Nicolacakis, Trevor Carrillo, Miller Smith, Brady Morrow, and Chase Caicedo, to the toughness of Coco Gannon, Justin Zegarowski, Nathan Bennett, George Churchill, Ben Foox, and Jack Giorgianni, to the unlimited potential of our quarterback duo Sully Bailey and Jake Boselli, the Dons have all the tools they need to finish out the season on the highest of notes.

Tonight they’ll face a Concord team who is 9-1, finishing second in the DAL Valley league, and has a junior running back, #6 Monte Beam, who is averaging over 200 yards rushing per game. It will take a team effort to hold down the grind-it-out Minutemen offense and prevent them from slowing the game down to keep the ball away from the Dons’ high-powered, quick-hitting, offensive attack. We’ll need the whole Acalanes community to come out and make our home field a big advantage tonight and lift up our Dons as they continue their march toward what they hope will be a very special season. Go Dons!