Fresno City College Rams beat San Francisco 24 -17 in a game that went to the wire.
Both teams played with a lot of adrenaline and emotion. When the final whistle blew FCC’s players were yelling and cheering; it is not like they didn’t beat the number one and two teams to become 2-0 for the season.
“I feel good. We worked hard and prepared for the whole week,” said Emmanuel Lewis, the quarterback who made some big plays, and some he wishes he could take back.
San Francisco scored first. Defensive back Justin Tayo jumped in front of the Rams wide receiver to intercept a pass. The ball bounced off his chest, but he kept his eyes on it.
Once he gained control of the ball, he made his way towards the Rams side of the field when a humongous hole opened up across the middle of the field. Tayo recognized it and turned on the after burners in that direction.
Once he trekked through the open path there was nothing left but the Rams quarterback to stop him; the only problem for Lewis was he didn’t have the right angle and could do nothing to stop Tayo from scoring.
It wasn’t until the second quarter when FCC’s linebacker Chris Nelson intercepted a pass and was tackled at the 35yard line. A few plays later the Rams quarterback Lewis threw a jump ball to wide receiver Michael Davis to tie the game at 7-7.
Davis caught the pass with one defender hanging on to him from behind and the other defender in his face feverously trying to jump high enough to stop the FCC wide out from catching the ball.
San Francisco had the momentum and the lead (14-7) going into halftime. The Rams were making the necessary adjustments that eventually won the game.
“I told the kids we are not playing good and we are down just 7 points. Just play our brand of football, our type of football and come out with a victory.” Coach Tony Caviglia said. The Rams came out with fire in their bellies. Many players were hitting harder, and the Rams on the sideline were going out of their way to pump each other up.
It wasn’t until the fourth quarter when Rams running back, Kenny Hedrington put his team up 24-17 with an 11 yard run, but it was not over. San Francisco pushed the ball inside the Rams 15 yard line with less than a minute to go in the game and failed to score on touchdown with 10 seconds left in the game.
San Francisco’s players were so upset with each other that their coach lectured them about their attitudes towards their teammates, “We didn’t play well and acknowledge we didn’t play well” San Francisco’s head coach said. He asked his players to apologize for their rude language and finger pointing amongst each other.
Up next for the Rams is American River. The coach had a few words for his players, “We are only 2-0, we haven’t won the conference yet, we are not even bowl eligible and we have American River coming in. I believe they are going to come ready to beat our butts and we just have to have a good week of practice and come out ready to play next week.”
