St. Mary's football trounces Vacaville in Sac-Joaquin Section Division II quarterfinals

STOCKTON – It’s never too early to look ahead a year into the future.

Rams coach Tony Franks didn’t need a crystal ball last year to foresee St. Mary’s making it into the playoffs this season.

But after giving up 51 points in each of the past two playoff losses, what he envisioned as his team playing better defense this year became reality Friday night as the No. 1 Rams trounced No. 9 Vacaville 38-0 in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II quarterfinals at St. Mary’s High School.

The Rams (10-1) next host No. 4 Manteca (8-3), a 21-14 winner over No. 5 Granite Bay, in this Friday’s semifinal at 7 p.m.

“Last year on this day, we lost 51-50 to Turlock, and this year on this date we won 38-0,” said Franks, who knew something had to change. “The minute we showed up and sat in our weight room after last season’s playoff loss, all we talked about was playing better defense in the playoffs.

“Blake Eagal, our defensive coordinator, and our defensive staff and I met early in the offseason, and we tweaked some things with our defense and coverages and how we practiced and how we play with the idea that we had to play better defense, not just during the season, but also in the playoffs,” he added.

Compared to the 572 yards and five receiving touchdowns given up to the Turlock Bulldogs last year, the Vacaville Bulldogs (7-5) only crossed midfield once and ran three plays, all for zero yards, from the Rams 46-yard line, before kicking one of their 10 punts in the shutout loss.

Vacaville only had 10 passing yards and 24 rushing yards in the first two quarters and earned its first, first down on the final play of the half.

The Bulldogs wound up with just 89 total yards of offense on only three first downs in the loss while the Rams won by collecting 315 offensive yards on 110 rushing yards and 205 yards via air mail.

“We’ve scored a lot of points in the playoffs,” Franks said. “We lost two years ago to Rocklin 51-48 and 51-50 last year. We lost our mind this last offseason after the last two playoff losses. Hopefully, we can keep playing good defense in our next game.”

Bye-Bye, Bye

It may be a necessary evil and sometimes a blessing to get players healthy, but having to sit out a week of the playoffs with a first-round bye is as tasty as boiled spinach ice cream to Franks.

“It’s awful having a bye,” Franks stated. “Maybe early in the year you can dig in and teach some things, but at this time of the year, you just want to keep playing. It’s all about momentum. We were all excited after winning the Lincoln game and then we had to go a week without playing anyone. It’s tough because you never know how you’re going to come out when you do play.

“Ask all those Major League Baseball teams that all lost in the first round this year after having a bye how hard it is. Momentum and energy are a real thing. We’re all about routine and doing things on a schedule and a bye messes up that routine,” he added.

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No pain, No gain

Instead of giving the Rams some time to take it easy and focus on school during the bye week, Franks and the coaches actually made practices harder than ever.

“Our bye week was probably one of the hardest weeks of practices I’ve ever had,” said sophomore receiver Kenny Moore III, who caught four passes for 112 yards against Vacaville. “It was very competitive the whole two hours of practice. We thought about that (playoff) loss all week. It was nice when it was finally over.”

Senior teammate Samson Hunkin, who completed 11-of-18 passes for 205 yards and the two scores with one interception in the win, agreed saying, “We really ramped up our intensity. We kind of learned from last year when we came out flat (against Turlock). Our seniors came out with a chip on our shoulders the last two weeks after (losing) last year.”

Said Franks, “We typically have around five to seven minutes of live drills in a practice. Not last week (during the bye). We got down and dirty and the kids played real hard. We had a hard week of practice and made it as hard a week as we could possibly make it.

“We had a lot of competitive drills to keep their edge up,” he added. “This week we backed off more like a typical week preparing for Vacaville.”

Unsung Hero

Although Moore got to touch the football a few times against Vacaville, the sophomore didn’t score a touchdown landing a yard short of paydirt on his first reception of the game.

Moore’s catch set up teammate Asante Carter’s first touchdown run then had a 30-yard punt return to the Vacaville 21-yard line to set up Hunkin’s second touchdown pass of the game, a 19-yard shot to freshman Osani Gayles.

Moore also reeled in a 43-yard sideline catch at the Bulldogs 14 and a 51-yard catch to the Vacaville 22 to set up Carter’s second and third touchdown runs.

School Spirit

Moore said you’ll find a lot of football players in the stands of the other teams wearing the green and white.

“We try to support all our teams like they support us,” he said. “We took a van up to watch the girls win the volleyball section championship. We come out to a lot of home games when we can. It was pretty dope that the girls went as far as they did in sections in the first year of flag football. Hopefully, they can build off that and try to get a (championship) next year.

Moore, who knows a thing or two about running receiving routes and getting open said he shares what he can with some of the girls. “Presley Da Cruz, one of our top receivers, is a close friend and I tried to teach her a little something on this and that to help her.”

The Rams lost to Christian Brothers 6-0 in the section championship game finishing with a 17-6-2 record and ranked 85th nationally by MaxPreps.

This article originally appeared on The Record: St. Mary's football trounces Vacaville in second week of playoffs