Golden Valley trying to survive ‘gauntlet,’ opens CCC football with rare Wednesday game
Golden Valley High football coach Rick Martinez called the situation his team is in — playing four games in 15 days — a gauntlet.
However, Martinez feels the Cougars are up for the challenge.
Golden Valley took a big step in a rare Wednesday night game with a 48-27 win over Central Valley at Veterans Stadium.
“Just getting back on the field on Friday against Pitman and tonight against Central Valley was big,” said Martinez, whose team improved to 2-3 on the season and 1-0 in the Central California Conference.
The Cougars were forced to postpone two games after three players tested positive for COVID-19. The three positive tests forced Golden Valley to shut down for 10 days, according to guidelines set by the Merced County Department of Public Health.
Through some creative scheduling, Golden Valley was able to reschedule games against Pitman and Buhach Colony. That set up the four games in 15 days, which started with Pitman on Friday and Central Valley on Wednesday. The Cougars will play two games next week with Buhach Colony on Monday and then at Atwater on Friday.
Despite the clogged schedule, Martinez and his players believe they can make a run at a CCC championship.
“We lost three games by five combined points,” Martinez said. “We have what we need. We just have to put it together.”
A big piece is senior running back Jabari Phillips.
The Cougars star carried the ball 31 times for 298 yards and five touchdowns against the Hawks.
Golden Valley leaned on him heavily throughout the game and he delivered. He credited his teammates with setting him up for success.
“My line, the key word this week was launch,” Phillips said. “We had to launch every single play. I follow my linemen, my receivers, my tight end and everyone down field and I got a blessing of 298 (yards) and five touchdowns tonight.”
Phillips scored on touchdown runs of 3, 42, 1, 9 and 64 yards.
The touchdown he enjoyed the most was the one scored by his twin brother Jamarcus Phillips, who scooped up a fumble and ran 13 yards for a touchdown that gave the Cougars a 22-0 lead in the second quarter.
“I’m his No. 1 fan so extremely happy he got his touchdown,” Jabari said.
Yeshua Trujillo threw three touchdown passes for the Hawks, who dropped to 3-3 overall and 0-2 in the CCC. Elijah Deleon added a 72-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter for Central Valley.
The Cougars are happy after everything they’ve went through the past two weeks that they still have a chance of playing a full 10-game season and they can take a run at the CCC title.
“If we would have missed that game against Buhach it would have been super unfortunate because we’re trying to chase CCC this year,” Jabari said. “It’s something we haven’t done in about 15 years.”
This story was originally published September 29, 2021 at 10:48 PM.
