Crosstown Clash is for WAC title

In August of 2010, as Pacheco High opened its doors for its first orientation, athletic director Charlie Pikas watched students streaming through the gym and looked forward to what he hoped would be a friendly rivalry with Los Banos High.

“I look forward to the day when week 10 of the football season is determining the league title,” he said.

Fast forward to present day, and that Week 10 has come, with Pacheco’s football team (7-2, 5-0 in the Western Athletic Conference) traveling 2.4 miles to Loftin Stadium to take on Los Banos High (7-2, 5-0 WAC) for the league championship. And while Pacheco has steamrolled most of the WAC (a 30-22 victory over Livingston was the closest game in league), Los Banos is coming off three straight close games (overtime against Patterson and Livingston, plus last Friday’s 14-6 victory over Central Valley in the rain).

“That’s one of the things that concerns me a little bit, is they’ve had three tight games in a row that could have gone either way,” Pacheco coach David Snapp said, “and not to say we’ve breezed through league, but we’ve been pretty dominant in league, and haven’t had one of those tight games in a while. It’s a possibility.”

Both teams are deep when it comes to skill players, but there’s one that stands out when the other team watches film.

“I think Frank Ginda. He’s a good running back, he’s big, and he’s fast for his size,” Los Banos quarterback Adam Herrera said. “They have a good passing game, but I see it as more of a running game.”

Herrera may have his eyes on Pacheco’s heavily-recruited linebacker, but he’s being watched himself.

“The Herrera kid makes me nervous. He’s a good football player,” Snapp said. “He’s one of those guys who makes two or three plays a game, and if we can limit his big plays then we have a good shot. He’s the one constant who stands out.

“When they talk about game-breakers, he’s the guy who to me looks like their game-breaker. They spread the ball around to their guys, but he’s the one guy that at any moment could take one 80 yards.”

Herrera and his teammates will run up against a Pacheco defense that has refused to fold this year.

“I don’t know if we see a team as fast as them sideline to sideline,” Los Banos coach Dustin Caropreso said. “Patterson, skill-wise, was fast. But Patterson wasn’t sideline-to-sideline fast. They do a good job of stretching things out.”

Los Banos, meanwhile, started the season with an inexperience offensive line and a shuffled offensive lineup.

“Everybody expected Los Banos to be the third team in the league,” Snapp said. “They’ve turned it around and made some things happen, and for them to be in this position is a testament to how hard they’ve worked and how they’ve adapted the us-against-the-world mantra that we’ve always fed off of.”

“As it gets closer to Friday, that’s going to be the hardest part,” Caropreso said. “I cook for the kids at my house on Thursday night to know where they’re at. They go in and watch whatever college or pro game might be on, and it’s just a bonding thing. I used to do it before the Dos Palos game, now we do it before the Pacheco game as well.”

Listen to the players talk on the record, though, and one gets a different impression.

“I think that’s what most of the guys look at, is it just being another game,” Los Banos running back Daniel Fernandez said. “It being league, it doesn’t take anything from what the game already is.”

Pacheco quarterback Juwan Epperson agreed, saying, “It’s just another game, just one with more hype on it.”

Here’s a quick look at the other rivalry games tonight:

Battle for the Mayor’s Cup

Merced (7-2 overall, 4-0 Central California Conference) can close out a perfect run through the Central California Conference with a win and likely earn a solid seed heading into the playoffs.

Don’t expect the Cougars (0-9, 0-4) to lay down. Golden Valley put a scare into Buhach Colony last week, leading midway through the second half before the Thunder scored 24 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.

Merced leads the series against GV 12-8, including eight consecutive wins.

Bloss Bowl

A couple weeks ago it looked like Buhach Colony might slip into the playoffs with just five wins, but that doesn’t appear to be the case now.

The Thunder (4-5, 1-3) do want the Bloss Bowl Trophy back after losing to Atwater last year. Buhach Colonys leads the all-time series 5-3.

Green and Gold Bowl

The Bulldogs (7-2, 6-0 Southern League) already clinched a share of the title with last week’s 21-12 win over Denair combined with Ripon Christian’s 24-0 win over Mariposa.

Le Grand can win the title outright tonight or Mariposa can clinch the top seed out of the SL win a win.

The Grizzlies (6-3, 5-1) will try to slow down Le Grand sophomore running back Carlos Iniguez, who ran for 215 yards and a touchdown against Denair last week.

This story was originally published November 6, 2014 at 9:54 PM with the headline "Crosstown Clash is for WAC title."