Knights take record shutout streak into section title game

The Stone Ridge Christian football team knows the days are numbered on coach Art De Jager’s facial hair.

On the heels of a 54-0 thumping of Woodland Christian on Sept. 18, the second shutout victory of the streak, the third-year coach agreed he wouldn’t shave until the Knights gave up another point. Nobody involved imagined De Jager’s beard would still be going strong come Thanksgiving.

So while SRC will continue to fight tooth and nail to keep opposing teams from crossing its goal line, the team won’t be too disappointed if the run ends in Saturday’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII title game, or what it hopes will be a NorCal Regional game.

“It started out kind of as a joke,” middle linebacker Austin Rees said. “Now it’s a source of pride. After nine straight shutouts, nobody wants to be the one to give up a point. It’s not something that we think is going to last forever, but it’s been fun while it has.”

According to Mark Tennis at Cal-Hi Sports, Stone Ridge’s nine straight shutout victories ties the 1928 Chico team for the all-time state record of consecutive shutout wins in a season. A shutout victory over Big Valley Christian on Saturday would give or tie the Knights for three more state records, and a handful more could fall if the run extends through a state bowl game. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at Lincoln High in Stockton.

SRC has already accomplished the feat once this year, knocking off the Lions 37-0 in late September.

“We had no idea we were going to be this good,” Anthony De Jager said. “We lost our quarterback, a 3,000-yard rusher and our best lineman, so to probably be better than we were a year ago is pretty remarkable.

“I think what sets this defense apart is that most of the guys have been in our 4-2-5 system for three years now. They trust the system and believe in it, so they don’t have to go out and think. They can just read and react, and they do so with tremendous speed.”

Like all great defenses, Stone Ridge (10-1) possesses a balanced unit.

Mark Hooker (77 tackles) and Gabe Bartholemew (40) lead an undersized but strong defensive line. Despite not facing many passing offenses, Hooker is tied for the state lead with 23 sacks.

The Knights’ system is set up for middle linebackers to thrive, and Rees has done just that. He’s tied for 10th in the state with 160 tackles and 22nd in the state with 26 tackles for a loss. He’s complemented by Joseph Amaral, Sybrand Vander Dussen and Jonathan Collazo.

“Getting Amaral back really helped cement our defense,” Anthony De Jager said. “He missed the first two games with a broken collarbone. Since he’s been back, everything changed. His speed on the outside keeps everything contained and lets Austin do what he does.”

The presumed weakness of the Knights’ defense is its secondary, but that has more to do with starting three sophomores than anything else. The trio of Shane Casillas, Bryce Louters and Cole Houweling took some lumps early in the season but have responded with 13 total interceptions.

Perhaps the most impressive part of SRC’s shutout run is that the starting unit has seldom played beyond the opening half. With only 30 players on the roster, the Knights don’t have the option of sending in an entirely fresh 11, but the backups have rotated into regular second-half reps the past nine weeks.

“You have to remember that unlike most of the successful private schools in the section, no one has ever come to Stone Ridge to play football,” Anthony De Jager said. “We can’t offer any scholarships or anything. We’ve got right around 100 students that are here because they want an excellent private school education.

“A lot of these guys had never even played football before they got here, but it’s a group with a lot of desire to improve.”

It’s been 36 quarters since the Knights (10-1) last yielded a point, after surrendering 69 total in the first two weeks of the season against bigger schools El Capitan and Ripon Christian.

As dominant as the Stone Ridge defense has been, no group is infallible. The shutout streak has been threatened plenty of times, with opponents driving inside the Knights’ 1-yard line on four occasions. Brookside Christian had six chances inside the 3-yard line in the regular-season finale, but goal-line situations seem to bring out the best of SRC.

“That was intense,” Hooker said. “They essentially had two chances because of a penalty. It felt pretty good to hold in that situation. I could see in their eyes that they were defeated after that. I’d have a hard time getting over having that many chances and not getting in.

“When other teams get inside the 5-yard line, we get crazy. We believe in each other. We trust each other to do our jobs, and no one wants to be the one to let their teammates down.”

This story was originally published November 26, 2015 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Knights take record shutout streak into section title game."