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Amador Valley Falls to High-Powered Concord
Dons make progress on offense but give up five touchdown passes
From the Pleasantonpatch.9/11/2010 By Eric Gilmore | 12:08am
http://pleasanton.patch.com/articles/football-amador-valley-falls-to-high-powered-concord
Concord 36, Amador Valley 23The Star: Amador Valley DB/WR Carson Ewanich caught a 22-yard touchdown pass, intercepted a pass and returned a punt 64 yards, setting up a third-quarter touchdown.
The Turning Point: Late in the third quarter, Concord blocked a punt then scored on Ricky Lloyd's 14-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Kelly Starnes, putting the Minutemen ahead 20-16.
The Quote: "He's very good. He does a great job reading (defenses). I think early in the game we did a good job of kind of reading him and being on it. I thought later on he did a good job of looking players off and making some plays. That's a tribute to him and his receivers." – Amador Valley coach Rick Sira on Concord QB Ricky Lloyd, who completed 41 of 54 passes for 341 yards and 5 touchdowns.
What's Next? The Dons travel to play Washington-Fremont on Sept. 17 at 7 p.m.
Bottom line: The Dons made some solid strides on offense, but they made too many mistakes to keep pace with the high-scoring Minutemen, who scored 40 points last week in a loss to Whitney High.
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Amador Valley High had the momentum and the lead over Concord with 10:53 left to play in the third quarter.
Carson Ewanich had just returned a punt 64 yards to the Concord seven, and running back A.J. Tyson had done the rest, bolting into the end zone on first down for a touchdown, putting the Dons ahead 16-14.
The extra-point was no good, but the Dons still held a two-point edge over the explosive Minutemen and quarterback Ricky Lloyd, a Division I talent who has committed to Southern Mississippi.
"I thought we had it," Ewanich said. "We had the momentum with us. We just made mental mistakes. That killed us."
Concord took advantage of almost every Amador Valley mistake and turned a two-point deficit into a 36-23 victory.
The Dons' momentum officially died when Concord's Cody Chapple blocked a punt in Amador Valley territory, and James Morales picked it up and rumbled to the 14. On first down, Lloyd hit Kelly Starnes for a touchdown, putting the Minutemen ahead 20-16 with 3:30 left in the third.
The Dons went three-and-out, and Concord drove for another score, Lloyd connecting with running back Alec Pica on a 14-yard touchdown with 11:19 left to play. Lloyd hit Starnes for the two-point conversion, making it 28-16. Lloyd's four-yard strike and two-point pass – both to Starnes – made it 36-16 with 5:30 left.
"They blocked the punt, but the next time we got the ball back we did nothing," said Amador Valley coach Rick Sira, whose team fell to 1-1 after a season-opening 7-0 win over Freedom. "That was a big turning point because we certainly had the momentum to be able to compete with them. We made some mistakes and they took advantage of them."
After scoring just seven points in their opener, the Dons made some strides on offense. Tyson rushed for 91 yards and two touchdowns. Sophomore quarterback Kyle Moreno hit Ewanich on a 22-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, one play after hitting Devin Windell over the middle for 45 yards. In the first quarter, he hit Casey Cummings on a slant good for 43 yards, setting up a touchdown.
"We're making strides, and we're still not satisfied," Sira said. "I'm proud of our kids. They're not satisfied, and they'll continue to get better."
"Yeah, we're slowly getting it," Ewanich said. "Just holding calls and everything, bringing the balls back. But we have it going forward."
The Dons averaged 34.1 points per game last year during an 8-3 season when they went 5-2 in the EBAL, but they lost their leading passer, Kean Stancil, leading rusher, Dalton Turay, and leading receiver, Tyler Christensen. Sira, though, thinks this year's team has the potential to one day score 40 points in a game like Friday's night.
Sira has yet to choose a No. 1 quarterback, as Moreno and senior Patrick Gibbons continued to share playing time. Moreno threw for 147 yards with four long strikes.
Is Sira closer to making a decision?
"I don't' know," Sira said. "I thought they both did some good things tonight. I've got to take a look at the film and see what's going on there and go from there."
Facing Lloyd certainly helped prepare Amador Valley for almost any other quarterback or any other passing attack they'll see this year.
He completed 41 of 54 passes for 341 yards and five touchdowns, working out of a four-receiver, shotgun set from start to finish. Wide receiver Kelly Starnes caught 14 passes for 98 yards and three scores.
"He was a great thrower," said Ewanich, who plays safety on defense. "He could pick apart the defense. He was good. He picked the holes and scored touchdowns on us."
Prep blog: Whitney wins season opener 42-40 over Concord
http://blogs.sacbee.com/preps/archives/2010/09/whitney-wins-se.html
This story is taken from Sacbee Published Saturday, Sep. 04, 2010
Concord High School senior quarterback Ricky Lloyd put on an amazing show at tonight's Battle at the Capital at Del Oro High School in Loomis, but it still wasn't enough against Whitney.
The 6-foot-2 Lloyd threw 54 passes, completed 33 for 423 yards and two touchdowns. The Southern Mississippi recruit also rushed five times for 52 yards and two scores. But his game-tying, two-point conversion pass attempt with 1 minute, 43 seconds was picked off by Whitney's Connor Riordan as the Wildcats won their season opener 42-40.
Whitney junior quarterback Jake Rodrigues didn't have too bad a game himself. He completed 9 of 18 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 68 yards and for two touchdowns on 18 carries in helping the Wildcats rally from a 22-6 second-quarter deficit.
Shawn Azam had an 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and Corey Paylin scored on pass receptions of 71 and 19 yards.
In games earlier in the day, Christian Brothers held off St. Mary's of Berkeley 36-28 and Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa beat Central Catholic of Modesto 24-21 in two overtimes.
© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
Crazy day at CA football event includes
quarterback with 423 passing yardsMark Tennis Senior Editor
Whitney (Rocklin, Calif.) 42, Concord (Concord, Calif.) 40
A quarterback Battle at the Capital between Whitney’s standout junior, Jake Rodrigues, and Concord’s Ricky Lloyd, committed to Southern Miss, lived up to advance billing.Whitney rallied from a 22-6 deficit in the first half , taking the lead on a 19-yard pass from Rodrigues to junior Corey Paylin early in the fourth quarter. The Minutemen came back on a 5-yard scoring run by Lloyd, but still trailed 35-34 after a missed two-point conversion.
Rodrigues then added a 1-yard plunge with 3:41 left as the Wildcats extended their lead to 42-34.
Concord wasn’t done, though, as Lloyd guided his offense downfield. With 1:43 remaining, he connected with senior Brandon Pham on a 5-yard touchdown pass.
Still needing two points to tie, the ensuing conversion attempt was stopped when Lloyd’s pass was intercepted by Whitney senior linebacker Connor Riordan. The Wildcats then recovered an onside kick attempt and ran out the clock for the win.
Lloyd ended up with a whopping 423 passing yards in the game, according to the Sacramento Bee’s Bill Paterson. He completed 33 of 54 passes with two touchdowns and also rushed for 52 yards on five carries with two more scores.Rodrigues hit on 9 of 18 passes for 225 yards with two touchdowns. He added 68 yards on 18 carries on the ground and scored twice.
With its offense, look for Concord to be a favorite in the Diablo Valley Athletic League. And if the defense improves, the Minutemen could even be a force in the North Coast Section Division II playoffs. One of the teams they could face: Cardinal Newman.
Whitney featured another big-time Division I recruit for the Class of 2012 in addition to Rodrigues. Jalen Cope-Fitzpatrick (6-foot-5, 255) made plays at tight end and defensive end.