Calaveras crushes Denair 41-0 to earn shot at section title

Legendary Calaveras High School assistant coach Scott Anderson has a one-liner for every occasion. Typically, Anderson’s quick statements are followed by laughter, as he’s not one to pass up a good opportunity to soften the mood with some lightheartedness. However, at the end of practice just 24 hours before Calaveras played in a semifinal game for the first time in 10 years, Anderson didn’t deliver any puns or knee-slappers to the team. With the players taking a knee in the end zone, Anderson gave them one thing to think about before hosting the Denair Coyotes with a trip to the section championship game on the line. “Hey,” Anderson said, “don’t let this be your last practice.” One day later, the Red Hawks made sure that their season wasn’t going to end on a cold November night at Frank Meyer Field in San Andreas. For the first time in 15 years, Calaveras will play for a section championship. In the semifinals of the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII playoffs, No. 1 Calaveras dominated No. 5 Denair 41-0, putting the Red Hawks just one win away from their first section title in school history. After Calaveras’ outstanding victory, head coach Manny Mossa was happy to sit back and watch his players celebrate, as he knows how hard they worked to get the opportunity to be one of the final two teams in the division left standing. “I couldn’t be more proud,” Mossa said. “I’ve been proud of them all year long, and I’m really proud that they played up to the moment. They worked hard all week long. I felt like defensively, the plan was really good, and just the way the team came out and executed that plan to a T. Yeah, proud is an understatement.” Even on a night when the Red Hawks put up 41 points, it was the defense that stole the show. Calaveras allowed just 78 yards of total offense – 66 through the air and 12 on the ground. The Red Hawks also forced one turnover. In eight quarters of playoff football, Calaveras has allowed just six total points. “I am so proud of the defense,” Calaveras senior lineman Nathan “Buddy” Kavanagh said. “Like people always say: ‘Offense wins games, defense wins championships.’ So that’s how it goes.” In Calaveras’ previous 10 games, the Red Hawks have scored on the opening drive eight times. In the semifinal clash with Denair, it took Calaveras just three plays to find the end zone. After the Red Hawks forced a 3-and-out to begin the night, junior quarterback Cohen Curran connected with senior Ryan Clifton on a screen pass, and Clifton went 76 yards for the quick score, giving the Red Hawks a 7-0 lead four minutes into the contest. “Coming out and hitting that and just getting that big play, that just brought the energy through the roof,” Curran said. “Ryan (Clifton) made a great move to get into the end zone.” Clifton added, “That was a perfect ball by Cohen. I caught it in stride, and they were not going to catch me.” Calaveras held on to its 7-0 lead until late in the second quarter. Following a 14-yard run from senior Enrique Hernandez, the Red Hawks had the ball on the Denair 5-yard line. On second-and-goal, Clifton scored his second touchdown of the half, putting Calaveras ahead 14-0. Following the score, the Red Hawks got the ball right back, as senior defensive lineman Wyatt Arias recovered a fumble at the Denair 40-yard line. Hernandez broke free for a 16-yard run on third-and-15 to move the ball inside the Denair red zone. A 14-yard run from Hernandez got Calaveras within 3 feet of the end zone, and Hernandez capped the drive with a 1-yard plunge over the goal line with 18 seconds left before halftime. When asked what he’s thinking as a lineman with the end zone just 1 yard away and a running play called, Kavanagh replied, “Just push. Just push as hard as you can and don’t stop until he’s in the end zone. Don’t stop.” At the midway point, Calaveras led 21-0, yet there was no early celebration inside the Calaveras locker room. Mossa reminded his players that there were things that needed to be cleaned up and that there were still 24 very important minutes of football left to be played. “We made a couple of adjustments,” Mossa said. “We needed to clean a couple of things up. We felt like, even though we were up 21-0, it was a little on the ugly side, which is OK, but clean some things up. The guys did it. They cleaned it up, and I felt like it showed in the second half.” Calaveras began the third quarter with a 69-yard drive that took seven and a half minutes. On the drive, Curran connected with Clifton for a 10-yard completion on third down to move the chains. With the ball on the Denair 23-yard line, Hernandez rumbled for a 13-yard gain and followed that with a 10-yard touchdown run, giving the Red Hawks a 28-0 lead with 4:24 to play in the third quarter. Calaveras’ defense forced a turnover on downs and gave the ball back to the offense on the Denair 21-yard line. On third-and-8 on the 18, Curran hit junior tight end Landon Patrick in stride for his second touchdown pass of the night. “Well, I was nervous going out there, but I had confidence,” Patrick said about his touchdown catch that gave Calaveras a 35-0 lead with 1:56 to play in the third quarter. “I had confidence in my QB, and then I got the ball, and I just ran it as far as I could go.” Curran had one of his finest passing performances of the season, going 5-for-8 for 116 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. “I think we put him in a better spot, we ran better routes, and we caught the football,” Mossa said. “There’s a lot of things that went into it. Look, we know he can chuck it. We know he can throw it. We’re going to continue to give it a shot.” The fourth quarter began with the Red Hawks leading 35-0, and a running clock was implemented – something that Hernandez didn’t expect to happen heading into the game. “A running clock in the second-round playoff game, I don’t think I’ve seen that, so it felt pretty good,” Hernandez said. The Red Hawks got their final score early in the fourth quarter, as senior Devin Ellis outran the Denair defense on his way to a career-long 47-yard touchdown. Calaveras finished the night with 285 yards rushing on 33 carries for an average of 8.63 yards per carry. Hernandez rushed for a game-high 176 yards and two scores on 18 attempts; Clifton had 28 yards and one score on five carries; junior Colton Ray rushed for 24 yards on six carries; and Ellis had 47 yards and a score. Clifton had 97 yards receiving and one score on three catches, while Patrick had one catch for 18 yards and one score. The Red Hawks finished with 401 yards of total offense. After the game ended, the biggest concern for the Calaveras players was who they would be facing in the section championship game. Would it be Summerville or Linden? About 25 minutes after beating Denair, the Red Hawks found out that No. 7 Linden upset No. 3 Summerville 27-21 in Tuolumne, making the section championship game Calaveras vs. Linden. Even though Calaveras already holds a victory over Linden, the Red Hawks know they are going to have an extremely tough task if they want to win the first section championship in school history. “We could go in there thinking we already beat them 42-12, but I think we need to go in there thinking, ‘Hey, we’ve never played this team. They’re good. They upset (number) two and three,’” Kavanagh said. “We got to go in there locked in, focused, ready to take them on.” Mossa isn’t worried about his team overlooking Linden with a chance at making history in the biggest game of the season. “I don’t think I need to preach to them one bit about it,” Mossa said. “Everybody knows the scoop. They know how many times Calaveras has been to a section title game and how many times we’ve won it: zero. So they know what’s going on. What I like is it’s the next task at hand. They’re going to show up Monday, we’re going to put in a game plan, and they’re going to work on it all week long and do their best to execute it on Friday.” While the Red Hawks are happy that they will be back at practice on Monday, Hernandez knows that the job isn’t done yet. “Oh, no, definitely not,” he said. “We’re going as far as we can go.” Calaveras will take on Linden for the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII championship at 9 a.m. Nov. 28 at Sacramento City College in Sacramento.