Acalanes wraps up Diablo Foothill division with commanding win over Clayton Valley
LAFAYETTE — The most fearsome part of the Halloween night showdown for Foothill Division supremacy in the Diablo Athletic League had to be Acalanes’ offense whenever it got within sniffing distance of a first down.
Whether it was mobile junior quarterback Tyler Winkles or bruising senior running back Josh Elerts, the Dons’ (9-0, 3-0) two-pronged attack methodically moved the ball at will Friday night against visiting Clayton Valley Charter to clinch the league title in front of a sparse — but festive — crowd.
“At the very start of the year, we talked about what we wanted to do,” Elerts said after rushing for 134 yards on 35 carries in the 31-14 win. “Winning league is not something Acalanes is known for. So it’s something that we’ve been emphasizing in our practices and something that we’ve been moving toward.”
Acalanes compiled three scoring drives of a dozen plays or more, ran the ball for 12 first downs and passed for seven more. They ran 81 plays to Clayton Valley’s 34 and possessed the ball for nearly three-quarters of regulation. But they didn’t produce a single play from scrimmage that gained more than 26 yards, that is, until Winkles connected with junior receiver Finley Rivera from the 50-yard line to ice the win with 4:37 left to play.
The touchdown brought Winkles’ passing total to 210 yards, and he added another 30 on the ground before he got to take a knee in the victory formation. Winkles’ first four passes fell incomplete before he went on to complete 17 of his next 20 attempts.
Rivera hauled in eight of those completions for 131 yards.
“That’s the game plan,” said coach Joel Isaac. “We want to stay on schedule, make sure that we’re taking what they give us. We were able to run effectively really all night. Maybe we weren’t popping them, but we also don’t have a No. 8 back there.”
Isaac was referring to Clayton Valley’s senior running back, Jhadis Luckey, who is closing in on his second consecutive 2,000-yard season. He trucked a defender and sprinted 29 yards to the end zone to put Clayton Valley up 7-0 as the first quarter came to a close. But the Ugly Eagles (5-4, 3-1) proceeded to surrender 25 unanswered points until junior quarterback Mirza Mann found freshman tight end Landon Trautner in the back of the end zone for a touchdown that made it 25-14 with 7:40 to play.
Mann connected with his receivers for deep balls of 42 and 39 yards but finished with 95 total yards passing. Likewise, Lucky was contained to 57 yards on 20 carries besides the touchdown. He returned the opening kickoff into Acalanes’ territory, but the Uglies then went three-and-out.
“We figured we could match them speed-for-speed in the passing game, and they didn’t really beat us deep,” Clayton Valley coach Nick Tisa said. “We just couldn’t stop their run game, and they did a good job of stopping ours. They just beat us in the trenches.”