By admin Casey Taylor has long embraced ambitious scheduling for the high school football teams he has coached throughout the Sacramento region.
Read more Bill taxing private immigration detention facilities passes Legislature
Home tilts against state powers or road trips against heavyweight programs in other state have gone a long way in fostering championship teams. The Oak Ridge Trojans coach and his giddy group celebrated a dramatic victory at Argyle High of the Dallas- Fort Worth metroplex on Friday against a state-ranked program that had gone 170-16 since 2013.
Trailing by 12 in the fourth quarter, The Sacramento Bee No. 2-ranked Trojans staged a dramatic winning drive and then held off a frantic last effort by the Eagles to record a 27-26 victory in a rousing season opening effort.
On the same night in the same Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, the small-school heavyweight Sutter Huskies defeated Bishop Lynch 49-28, as senior running back Losi Asiata rushed for 300 yards and four touchdowns to go with a 30-yard scoring strike, and the defense was led by star Cal-bound defensive end star Troy Bowens and his equally intense teammates, Andrew Barker and Kristian Montero.
Sutter, the defending CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division V champion and a winner of 13 CIF Northern Section crowns, roomed at the same hotel as Oak Ridge, a program that has reached the last four section Division I title games. The storied programs scored a double-bonus triumph for Northern California public schools in a state that touts itself as having the best prep football in the country.
For Oak Ridge, Ethan Quan’s 5-yard touchdown run with just over a minute to play was the difference. A late defensive stop led to a jubilant post-game scene and capped a whirlwind few days in the Lone Star State.
Sean Gasten had a 5-yard touchdown run to pull Oak Ridge to within 26-20 in the fourth quarter after Dylan Esten had a 4-yard scoring run to pull Oak Ridge to within 20-13 in the third quarter, his second end zone trip of the game.
Read more Sacramento’s top news: Newsom’s new label, Yosemite land deal and a union fight
“Great trip for us,” Taylor told The Bee on Friday. “Offensive line dominated in the second half. Nick Johnson completed some big passes to Braxton Martinez, Jack Granud and Nate Anzel, and the defense had two big stops in the fourth quarter. We battled in the humidity. Great start to the season.”
Taylor used monstrous scheduling to help mold his Del Oro Golden Eagles teams of Placer County, leading to multiple CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championships and CIF State finals appearances in 2015 and 2016, including a title in 2015.
Oak Ridge on Sept. 4 hosts a defending CIF State champion in Central East, the top-ranked team in the Central Section that beat Bee No. 3-ranked Grant in an opener on Friday. Sutter plays at Douglas High in Nevada on Sept. 4.
Taylor and his coaching staff took the Trojans to the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the site of the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The team also visited the famed Cotton Bowl to watch a high school game, and everyone fed their faces at barbecue joints, a big thing in the big state of Texas.
Sutter coach Ryan Reynolds and staff in the days leading up to their game took the Huskies for visits to SMU and TCU, and to Dealey Plaza. And, of course, the guys devoured pounds of barbecue with bibs and paper towels. The plan was for the Huskies to hit a water park — coaches included — before flying home Saturday.