JC football: Fresno City aims to end losing trend against San Francisco

Now comes the big test for the Fresno City College football team.

For six straight seasons, City College of San Francisco has defeated the Rams.

But after five losses in San Francisco and one at home, state-ranked No. 10 Fresno City is hoping to end the skid against No. 2 CCSF at 6 p.m. Saturday at Ratcliffe Stadium. Both teams are the Rams.

“They’re consistently good, always ranked and they always have good athletes,” Fresno City defensive lineman Josh Hinson said. “We just have to play at the level and potential we know we’re capable of.”

That almost didn’t happen last weekend against Sierra. Fresno City (2-0) scored 14 points in the fourth quarter to rally past the Wolverines 42-41 in overtime, capped by a touchdown pass from Christian Rossi to Rashaan Miller.

Rossi was named the NorCal Offensive Player of the Week after completing 32 of 46 passes for 392 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions. He also had a rushing touchdown.

Wide receiver James Whitfield, who caught one of the five touchdown passes, said CCSF presents a big challenge: “Both teams are good and confident,” he said.

For the first time since taking over as Fresno City coach in 1999, Tony Caviglia will not see George Rush on the opposite sideline. The longtime CCSF coach retired during the offseason and Jimmy Collins has taken over.

But Caviglia said he still sees the same makeup of a Rush-coached CCSF team.

“They’re big and fast,” Caviglia said. “But I think we’re all the same.”

Such as both teams rallying to defeat Sierra by one point. In the season opener, CCSF (2-0) scored 16 points in the fourth quarter for a 25-24 victory.

“We have to be disciplined because if you play San Francisco undisciplined then, yeah, they’ll exploit all your weaknesses,” Hinson said. “They have a lot of good athletes, but we also have good athletes.”

Caviglia was encouraged how his team competed last weekend, but added he’s looking forward to seeing how Fresno City plays against CCSF.

“It’s going to be a fantastic football game,” Caviglia said. “There will be a lot of great plays by great athletes on both sides of the ball. If you’re a fan, this is a type of game you’re going to want to see because you never know how it’s going to turn out. It’s going to make for an exciting matchup.”

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 6:49 PM with the headline "JC football: Fresno City aims to end losing trend against San Francisco."