Coach Stivers shares thoughts as MJC prepares for Top 10 clash with Fresno City
Some would say Modesto Junior College’s football season boils down to one game: the matchup with Fresno City College.
The teams consistently battle for the coveted top spot in the Valley Conference that grants the winner a trip to the state playoffs.
The Pirates (5-2) and the Rams (6-1) face off this Saturday at 6 p.m. with Modesto ranked sixth and Fresno seventh in the most recent version of the JC Athletic Bureau Coaches Poll.
The Pirates’ game plan starts with defense. Fresno quarterback Justin Holaday is an all-around talent who has the ability to throw with accuracy and athleticism to make plays with his legs if receivers aren’t initially open. Holaday has thrown for 1,100 yards and 10 touchdowns and rushed for 327 yards and 10 more scores.
“Scrambling quarterbacks like that are really difficult to contain, because the secondary does their job and all of a sudden, he takes off and makes things happen,” MJC coach Rusty Stivers said. “He’s able to either run for first down or scramble and throw for first downs.”
Holaday’s weapons are endless. He throws to five main receivers, three who have 190 or more receiving yards and two touchdowns. Out of the backfield, the Rams have running back Jeff Green Jr., who has carried the ball 38 times for 211 yards and one touchdown since his first game this season Oct. 2.
“You try to figure out what they’ve had the most success with and that’s where you start,” Stivers said on how they build a defensive gameplan. “(We are) trying to minimize the quarterback’s creativity.”
The fast-paced offense the Pirates broke out in their 65-14 win over West Hills is here to stay. Stivers says the team has found a groove of running a few plays in the faster, no-huddle offense and changing the pace to a slower style within the flow of the game.
“Sometimes you want to go fast, sometimes you want to change gears,” said Stivers of the way the offense runs. “There were times (last week against Reedley) that we went super fast. Sometimes we just kind of cruised through and then there were times where we went really slow. So I was really happy with the pace.”
Still, the Pirates are a run-heavy offense. They average 238 rushing yards per game but will face a stingy Rams run defense that only allows 87 yards.
“Historically, Fresno is difficult to run against,” Stivers said. “We’re putting a lot of time in this week and to figure out how to move the ball both running and throwing.”
