Fresno City football faces No. 3 Santa Rosa

Published online on Friday, Sep. 25, 2009

Fresno City’s elation was short-lived after rallying past American River in the fourth quarter last weekend.

Up next for the No. 12 Rams is unbeaten Santa Rosa, the No. 3 team in Northern California, in the 7 p.m. home opener Saturday at Ratcliffe Stadium.

“We’re up to the challenge. We got a win and now we’re ready to roll,” said sophomore defensive lineman Jordan Monga.

This season hasn’t been kind to coach Tony Caviglia’s Rams, so Saturday’s 23-20 win was a morale boost. His team had lost six straight dating to last season after opening 2009 with losses at Bakersfield, the No. 11 team in the state, and at San Francisco, No. 4 this week.

“That was very humbling,” sophomore tailback Antoin DeWalt said. “We got tired of losing and felt it was time to win.”

Last Saturday, Fresno City boarded the bus at 6:30 a.m., drove three hours, played a 1 p.m. game in 96-degree heat and somehow grew stronger in the fourth quarter — scoring twice in the final six minutes.

“An average team would have folded,” Caviglia said. “But they just willed themselves to victory.”

Santa Rosa is Northern California’s best defensive team (7.3 points per game) and also has a passing attack ranked No. 4 — compiling 330 yards per game and throwing nearly 60 times a game.

“They’re going to move the ball, but we’ve got to make them drive the field and stay away from the big play,” Caviglia said.

To do that, the Rams need to keep Santa Rosa’s offense off the field and count on a rejuvenated running game that put up over 200 yards last week behind DeWalt, Josh Tobar, Andrew Jones and Shawn Campbell.

“Our offensive line is clicking,” DeWalt said, “and we’ve added a few more schemes this week. We’ve just got to keep playing hard.”