ALBANY — Senior running back Larry McDonald lined up adjacent to Pinole Valley quarterback Maddox Wu, took the handoff, read his blocks and then got positive yardage. This sequence occurred nine times on Pinole Valley’s opening drive and ended with McDonald slipping between blockers for a six-yard touchdown.
“I’ve got a good line, and I just trust them,” said McDonald, who finished with 148 yards on 30 carries. “I feel like nobody can tackle me, too.”
Pinole Valley’s 20-7 upset victory over top seed St. Mary’s in the North Coast Section Division VI semifinals wasn’t achieved by unloading a salvo of 50-yard touchdown runs and long bombs to deep receivers. Instead, coach Troy McConico’s team ended the previously-unbeaten Panthers’ season by calling four-yard run after four-yard run.
How the Spartans went about their business was no surprise after the first drive, but St. Mary’s could not stop the predictable when faced with crushing blocks and a bulldozer-esque Pinole Valley line. The Spartans ran for 190 yards on 46 carries, and only three of those totes went for negative yardage.
“They really were surprised by how physical we were,” junior lineman Leonardo Cruzado said. “We’re Spartans, and we never gave up on any of the plays.”
After McDonald’s first touchdown in the opening quarter, Pinole Valley’s defense locked in. With about three minutes to go in the second quarter, cornerback Donovan Robinson picked off a pass to give his team great field position. Powerback James Gordon III capitalized on the opportunity by punching in a short touchdown to put St. Mary’s into a 14-0 hole at halftime.
“We know who our guys are and that they want to play a physical game,” McConico said. “We feel like when we play our game, it’s us against us.”
Wu wasn’t asked to throw it 30 times like some quarterbacks, but he kept the offense on schedule with short passes to his playmakers. A 21-yard touchdown pass on a screen to McDonald late in the third quarter essentially ended the game and punched Pinole Valley’s ticket to an NCS championship game next week against Justin-Siena.
“They played with a high safety, and St. Mary’s saw us running a lot, so the flats were open,” Wu said. “I just kept hitting them (with short passes).”
The St. Mary’s team that scored 42 against Arcata last week was nowhere to be seen, and it wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the team was able to crack 100 yards from scrimmage. Coach John Trotman said his team did not overlook Pinole Valley, and instead gave props to an opponent that had dismantled one of the best St. Mary’s teams in years.
“We couldn’t get into a rhythm offensively,“ Trotman said after his team could only muster one garbage-time touchdown. “They did a great job defensively of playing man across the board and putting guys in the box for us to block. Those big boys in the middle were hard to move.”
Pinole Valley, after an uneven 5-4 regular season, now has a chance to win the school’s first NCS championship since 1979 when it matches up with Justin-Siena. The team made no secret of how it expects to play next week.
“Let’s run it down their throats,” senior guard Gage Eda said. “Same thing we always do, which is ground and pound to put up points, and then we can hold them on defense.”
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