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Amador Valley and San Ramon Valley battled to a 14-14 score at the half before the Wolves pulled away to win 41-14. (Photo by Dennis Miller)

Week one of the East Bay Athletic League football regular season is in the books and it was business as usual.

The lone Mountain Division league game was San Ramon Valley at Amador Valley, and I decided to take in the game and answer a couple of questions I had heard thus far through the non-league campaign.

* San Ramon Valley is young and maybe a little more vulnerable than in recent years.

* Amador Valley has been battling injuries throughout the season but is starting to get some guys back.

After watching the 41-14 San Ramon Valley win, there were some crystal-clear statements that were made.

* San Ramon Valley is a younger team with approximately nine sophomores and 26 juniors to go along with 27 seniors. This also explains the somewhat slower than normal start for the Wolves. In other words, if you want to get at SRV, it had to be earlier in the season when you faced a growing team.

* Younger teams take time to gel and the Wolves, who lost their second and fourth games to fall to 2-2 at the time, were building as a team. The last three games the Wolves have won 44-7, 49-13 and 41-14, showing the group coming together as the season has gone on.

* Amador Valley, undermanned compared to the Wolves, fought like hell and stood 14-14 at the half as they did indeed get some players back from injury.

 * One of those players – McKay Kenitzer, a 6-foot-4 tight end – caught a touchdown in the first quarter and is truly a heart-and-soul type player for the Dons. But Kenitzer went down in the second quarter with an ankle injury that appeared to be season-ending. It was painful to see Kenitzer, who is a senior and is staring at the end of his high school career.

My biggest take away from the night is that if you don’t get the Wolves this year, you might not get the chance for the next couple of seasons.

Check out the following players and their stats.

Cole Dawes is the junior quarterback for the Wolves, and he went 11-for-13 Friday night for 252 yards and three touchdowns.

For the season, Dawes is 103-152 (67 percent) for 1,597 yards with 19 touchdowns against only five picks.

Who is catching the passes? The answer makes the Wolves even scarier moving forward.

Friday night sophomore Colton Fitzgibbon had two catches for 105 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Another sophomore, Dietrick Burks, caught four passes for 97 yards and a touchdown.

Junior Xavier O’Guinn had two carries for 83 yards and a touchdown.

For the season, Fitzgibbon has caught 25 passes for 530 yards and eight touchdowns, O’Guinn has 23 catches for 356 yards and three touchdowns, and Burks has 17 receptions for 232 yards and three scores.

Another sophomore – Owen Power – has only caught seven passes but those have gone for 126 yards and three scores. 

You now have one of the most dominant public school programs in Northern California, perhaps down a tad this year but coming on like the gangbusters and loaded for the next couple of seasons.

Valley Division

The Valley had a couple of games on Friday and let’s see what we can learn from them.

The big game of the night was Livermore playing host to Dublin. The Gaels came into the game 3-3 but had played a tough non-league campaign and in their last game took Amador down to the end of the game before falling 17-14.

Livermore came in 5-1 with the lone loss being a 44-20 game to unbeaten California. The Cowboys have not played as tough a non-league campaign, but they have done what you need to when playing a weaker schedule – beat teams and beat them badly. 

They were the No. 1 team in my Valley Power Rankings and held on to that spot with a 22-21 thriller over the Gaels, scoring late to get the win.

In the other game, Granada played host to a 4-2 Foothill team that has been playing well. The Mats came in 3-3 but two of the losses have been against unbeaten Campolindo and aforementioned San Ramon Valley.

Friday night a 28-0 win over Foothill let Livermore and Dublin know Granada has plans to be in contention for the Valley title and will be a tough out.

The big game will be Granada playing host to Dublin. A win by the Mats will set up a huge game with Livermore for what should be the EBAL title.

Flag football

The EBAL is heading into the final week of the EBAL regular season, and it sets up to be a crazy rivalry week.

Three of the Tuesday night games – San Ramon Valley at Monte Vista, Amador Valley at Foothill, and Livermore at Granada – can all have a direct impact on the regular season title.

If nothing else, this season has been hugely unpredictable, with both California and Amador Valley suffering huge, unforeseen upsets.

The Grizzlies (12-2) have been among the elite teams since the inception of flag football, but fell to 4-7 Dougherty Valley on Sept. 16 by a 13-6 final.

Amador – 12-4 and one of the hottest teams in the league – dropped a 19-18 game to Carondelet (7-8) this past week. 

What we have left is a crazy closing week where there could be no change in the current standings to complete upheaval!

Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation.

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A freelance sportswriter for the Pleasanton Weekly, Livermore Vine and DanvilleSanRamon.com, Dennis Miller has been covering high school sports in the Tri-Valley since 1985. He is also a horse racing handicapper/journalist...

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