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Last year when the San Ramon Valley football team battled through a 6-5 season while starting nine sophomores, you knew good things were looming on the horizon for the Wolves.
“We thought we’d make dramatic improvements over last year,” San Ramon Valley coach Aaron Becker said. “We’re still a young team and we knew there was talent, but you never know for sure until you play that first game.”
That first game was a 41-14 win against a good El Cerrito team. That was followed by wins over Enochs (54-13), Clayton Valley (52-7), Clovis North (42-7) and Foothill (49-0).
That’s five impressive wins over some real solid programs. But the work isn’t done for the Wolves. The back half of the season has games, in order, against Livermore, Amador Valley, De La Salle, California and Monte Vista.
“We’ve known down the schedule, there were teams we would have to contend with,” said Becker. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. (Cal) is a big district rivalry.”
Cal is also a team that beat San Ramon Valley 33-14 last season.
A chance of revenge against the Grizzlies would also help the Wolves with their season goals.
“We want to win the school district – there’s three good teams in our district,” Becker said of Cal and Monte Vista. “Then we want to win league.”
If you win the San Ramon Valley Unified School District, that pretty much assures winning the East Bay Athletic League Mountain Division.
At the end of the regular season lies Monte Vista, a team that is 6-0 and has been beating teams like the Wolves have.
“We knew after last year, Monte Vista would be a good team,” Becker said.
The key for the Wolves this year has been how good they are on offense and defense. Through the first half of the season, the Wolves outscored their opponents 238-41 for an average score off 47.6-8.2. The low-water mark for the offense is 41 points in the season opener.
“Defensively, all the kids we thought would play well, have,” Becker said. “We’ve been really good in the box against the run. We’ve got 7-8 kids that we can put into 3 or 4 spots and they are doing a nice job.”
Individually, junior defensive back Dietrick Burks Jr. has been having a great season and has gotten a number Division I offers already.
On offense, it’s almost an embarrassment of riches.
Senior Cole Dawes pulls the trigger from his quarterback spot, throwing for 1,001 yards and 16 touchdowns without an interception.
“We knew Cole was going to have a big year,” Becker said.
Xavier O’Guinn (13 catches), Colton Fitzgibbon (12 catches) and Owen Power (10 catches) have been the main targets. Fitzgibbon, a junior who has committed to Oklahoma for football and baseball, is averaging 24.5 yards per catch and has five touchdowns.
O’Guinn (senior) and Power (junior) have caught four touchdowns each.
“Fitz is a terror out there,” Becker said of Fitzgibbon.
Running the ball has been all about Power, who has carried 43 times for 536 yards (an average of 12.5 yards per attempt) and has rushed for nine touchdowns.
Power was a safety for the Wolves last year as the team had a pair of senior running backs. With those guys gone, it’s all Power this year.
“He can go outside or inside,” Becker said. “He’s got a lot of (Christian) McCaffrey’s characteristics.”
The offensive line is led by Aden Owolabi, a 6-foot-6, 290-pound junior that has been offered already by most of the Power Four teams. He runs the 40 in 5-flat.
“It’s been a surprise – not his ability or how he’s played – but how quickly his recruiting has become. It’s like a brush fire that exploded,” Becker said of Owolabi.
Game of the Week
Carondelet at Amador Valley, flag football – Tuesday (Oct. 6) 7:45 p.m.
For the second time in three weeks, the focus falls onto the EBAL girls’ flag football league.
Two weeks back it was the San Ramon Valley at Amador Valley game where the Dons pulled off the 13-12 win on the final play.
That gave the Dons control of their own destiny in the EBAL, but it didn’t mean it was smooth sailing the rest of the way out.
The Dons have gone on to beat Lowell (33-6), Livermore (19-6) and Northgate (21-7) since the SRV game – but Tuesday night they face Carondelet, a team capable of bringing the Dons back to the pack.
The Cougars are 11-4 overall and 6-1 in EBAL play, losing 28-0 to San Ramon Valley. But while on paper it certainly adds up to an Amador win, if the Dons don’t bring their A game, the Cougars have the talent to pull off the upset.
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. To sign up for free, visit here.
