LB football clicking on all fronts heading into playoffs

Teams are seldom complete products when the first footballs are kicked off in August.

Try as coaches might, there’s almost always one phase of the game that’s further ahead than the others. The teams that most successfully close that gap over the course of the season are the ones that generally do well come playoff time.

Coach Dustin Caropreso hopes that’s the case. Defense unquestionably carried his Los Banos football team through the first half of the season. Players such as Mason Leao, Vincent Alvarez and Tristan Soares have been rocks on a unit that’s yielding just over 20 points per game. The offense, while not bad, lacked consistency and at times potency.

That seems to have changed heading into No. 4 LB’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV first-round playoff matchup against No. 5 El Dorado on Friday night. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Loftin Stadium. The Tigers enter the contest averaging 40 points and more than 500 yards per game in four of their past five contests. They may need the firepower against a Cougars team that can put up lots of points.

“I think we’re coming in playing our best football of the season,” Caropreso said. “Our defense has gone out and executed as a unit all season. I’ve said many times I’d put them up against anybody. Our offense definitely seems to have found a rhythm, particularly the last three week. We’re even getting big plays from our special teams, so I feel good about where we’re at heading into the playoffs.”

Finding an offensive balance has been Los Banos’ key. The Tigers (7-3) entered the season expecting to run the ball with a big, experienced offensive line. Caropreso didn’t think he had much in the way of star power at running back but figured 4 yards a carry would get the job done. So the emergence of Chris Kyles as a 1,000-yard back has been a pleasant surprise.

“If anyone would have predicted that at the beginning of the season, I’d have laughed at them,” Caropreso said. “Chris has impressed me, though. He’s not going to run away from anyone, but he sees the holes well and hits them hard, without any dancing.”

The development of a passing game has opened some space and eased Kyles’ burden. Teams can’t entirely commit to stuffing the box to limit Kyles’ success when quarterback Christian Corral has averaged more than 200 passing yards per game in LB’s last four contests. Caropreso knew Corral possessed a big arm coming into the season, but he had limited football experience and would need time to find his way.

“The best thing we did for him was take the decision-making away,” Caropreso said. “He had all the physical tools, but this is really only his third year playing football and so he was overthinking the coverages he saw. Now we get up to the line and the coaches will give him the options that look best based off of what the defense is showing.

“Christian can go back to just playing and reacting, and it seems like he’s responding to it.”

Corral said his comfort level and confidence have risen with the change.

“To be honest, I thought they threw a lot at me to start the year, but I wanted to accept the challenge,” Corral said. “The coaches have really taught me a lot about the position. They call me a street quarterback. I just go back there and throw. Now that they’ve taken some of the reading the defenses away, I can get back to doing that.

“I always felt we had the best receivers in the WAC, they just needed to show it. They’ve really stepped up and made things easy for me the last few weeks. Now that we can throw the ball a little more consistently, it’s given Chris a little extra space.”

El Dorado (8-2) had produced a similar balance while racking up more than 30 points per game for the season. Led by dual-threat quarterback Aaron Golmitz (1,581 passing yards and 13 touchdowns plus 384 rushing yards and six rushing scores) the Cougars have piled up 1,640 passing yards to 1,642 rushing yards.

“They’ve been a lot like us where some games their run game really carried them and other games they’ve thrown the ball a ton,” Caropreso said. “They run an offense pretty similar to Ceres but are more effective running the ball. They’re going to take what the defense gives them and their quarterback is an excellent athlete.

“We’ve seen some things on both sides of the ball that we think we can exploit. They probably feel the same way. They’re going to be a challenge, but they’re no bigger or faster than Central Valley or Pacheco. It’s a game we should be able to compete in as long as we go out and execute.”

This story was originally published November 10, 2016 at 4:52 PM with the headline "LB football clicking on all fronts heading into playoffs."