The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Willow Glen's Miguel Campos looks for running room in last week's battle with Santa Clara. Campos scored the first touchdown in the Rams' 28-6 victory.

Rams open with big win

Macchi tosses four touchdown passes

By Dick Sparrer

The Willow Glen defense had its back to the wall.

The Rams were leading Santa Clara 14-0 midway through the third period, but the Bruins faced a first and goal at the 9-yard line and were threatening to make it a one touchdown game.

But David Dudley and Shaun Thompson led a tremendous goal-line stand for the Rams. And moments later sophomore quarterback David Macchi hit John Fernandez for a 99-yard touchdown pass.

So instead of the game drawing close at 14-7, Willow Glen surged to a commanding 21-0 lead, and the Rams rolled on to a 28-6 win in the Friday night nonleague game played under the lights at Townsend Field.

"It was a huge swing there," said Willow Glen head coach Bob Parker.

"We had a wonderful goal-line stand," he added.

Dudley started it with a big play on third down.

"He just stuffed the dive," Parker said of his senior middle linebacker.

Facing a fourth and goal, Santa Clara tried to get outside. But Thompson strung the play to the sideline, then drove the quarterback out of bounds at the 1 to stop the threat.

Macchi led the offense onto the field, but they weren't there for long. The sophomore quarterback hit Fernandez in stride at the 35, and the speedy junior wide receiver was off to the races to complete the 99-yard touchdown play.

For Macchi, it was an impressive varsity debut. The soph thrower completed eight of 17 passes for 258 yards and four touchdowns.

"(Offensive coordinator) Steve Hare loves to throw the football, and he has a lot of confidence in (Macchi)," said Parker.

Macchi went to the air early to hit Dewitt Willis for 24 yards and a touchdown in the first period. Nich Holt kicked the first of his four extra points, and Willow Glen led 7-0 in the second period.

Macchi hit Miguel Campos for 33 yards and a touchdown in the third period before hooking up with Fernandez for the 99-yard TD later in the period.

Santa Clara scored in the fourth to trim the lead to 21-6, but Macchi went to Fernandez for 20 yards and a final touchdown later in the period.

Fernandez ended up pulling in four passes for 161 yards. Willis had two grabs for 44 yards, Campos had the one catch for 33 and Cory Hare caught one ball for 20 yards.

Willis led the ground attack for the Rams with 90 yards on 13 carries, seven of his runs going for first downs.

"The first four times he touched the football were for first downs," said Parker.

Willis and Campos carried most of the load toting the football for the Rams, but Parker also singled out fullback Nick Nelson for an outstanding job of blocking.

The coach was pleased with his club's offensive showing, though he added that "we should have scored a couple of more times." But he was extremely pleased with the defensive effort.

"This is the best game we've ever played against Santa Clara," he said. "This is the fewest points we've ever held them to."

Ricardo Mendez and Thompson were the defensive leaders for the Rams, and they were involved in a crucial series midway through the game.

"They had gotten a couple of firsts, and were near our 40," said Parker.

But Thompson came up on the option and drilled the Santa Clara ball carrier as soon as he received the pitch, dropping him for a 6-yard loss.

Thompson and big senior Mike Von Reuden came up to bury the Bruin quarterback for a 9-yard loss a play later.

And Mendez finished off the series by sniffing out a screen and dropping the receiver for a 6-yard loss.

On fourth and 31, the Bruins punted the football back to the Rams.

"It was one of those games where we played really good team defense and we didn't make many mistakes," said Parker.

Hare came through with a pass interception for the Rams, and Mark Dragovich forced a fumble that Russ Canales recovered.

Willow Glen will now take its 1-0 record up against a tough Monta Vista club in a 1:30 p.m. nonleague game on Sept. 20.

"Our challenge is," said Parker, "we'll need to stop the run."

The Matadors are coming off of a 28-0 win over Yerba Buena last weekend.

The Willow Glen frosh-soph club will host Monta Vista at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The Rams lost 12-6 to Santa Clara last Friday evening.

Mustangs lose

Pioneer, meanwhile, lost its opener to Gunderson last weekend, falling 34-7 to the powerful Grizzlies.

Junior quarterback Greg Haskell hit Leigh Mayer on a 7-yard touchdown pass in the second period and Brian Sturges kicked the extra point to cut Gunderson's lead to 22-7, but the Grizzlies went on to get two second-half touchdowns to post the easy win.

Senior linebacker Rob Basuino led the Pioneer defense with 11 tackles and a fumble recovery. Ryan Sexauer was also in on 11 tackles and Paul Purdy got in on nine. Ryan Brown, Grant Murdock and Kevin Gelardi were other tackling leaders for the Mustangs.

The Mustangs will go after their first win on Saturday when they host Silver Creek at 1:30 p.m.

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