Los Banos uses ground game to run away with Western Athletic Conference game against Davis
Los Banos loves the ground game.
While most teams lean toward the flashy highlights that come with the passing game, the Tigers would much rather pound the ball with quarterback David Herrera and running back Mark Carreiro.
“We’re gonna run the ball instead of throwing the ball, we do it a little bit backwards here in Los Banos.” said coach Dustin Caropreso.
Unfortunately for the Davis football team, the Tigers’ rushing attack was as successful as it’s been all season.
Los Banos produced 284 yards and three touchdowns on the ground and used a 12-play drive to chew off the final three minutes of the third quarter and nearly six minutes to start the fourth en route to a 32-17 win, improving to 3-2 overall and 2-0 in the Western Athletic Conference.
“They made more plays than us,” Davis coach Tim Garcia said. “They won the trench war inside, that was the big difference tonight. Hats off to them, they did a great job of scheming and making plays.”
It wasn’t the cleanest start, but Jackson Brooks snuck a 33-yard field goal inside the left upright to give the Spartans a 3-0 lead on the first play of the second quarter.
Izrael Sanchez recovered a fumble on the ensuing Los Banos possession and Davis only needed two plays to score the game’s first touchdown. A 47-yard connection from quarterback Adrian Gallegos to Brooks gave the Spartans a quick 10-0 lead.
But just when it looked like the Spartans would take a lead into halftime, the Los Banos offense kicked in.
The Tigers scored twice in the final seven minutes of the second quarter. That’s when Carreiro came alive. The senior scored the team’s first rushing touchdown with 5:51 remaining and Herrera found Kayson Welch for the first of his two passing touchdowns to take a 13-10 lead into the intermission.
The Tigers scored 13 more points in the third quarter to break the game wide open, extending their lead to 26-10 by the end of the period. Carreiro added two more scores on the ground and by the time the starters were pulled, he had racked up 218 yards and three touchdowns on 16 carries.
“I’ve got to give it to my linemen,” said Carreiro, who had touchdown runs of 54 and 71 yards. “They kept going on their blocks and I’d find the cutbacks. Salvador Garcia, Jose, Julian, they all showed out today and I couldn’t have done it without them.”
The Spartans scored their final touchdown with just nine seconds remaining.
“We were just getting washed down inside and not getting off our blocks in the interior,” Garcia said. “When it came down to it, they made more plays than we did and executed better than we did.”
Los Banos’ journey to another playoff appearance continues on the road next week against preseason league favorite Mountain House (4-1, 1-1).
“From the beginning of the year, we were telling our guys we’ve got 10 guaranteed games,” Caropreso said. “Don’t look ahead, don’t look back … we’re just taking it one game at a time. If we take that approach, it’ll get our guys where they need to be.”
Davis will prepare for a trip to Los Banos to play Pacheco.
“You win some, you lose some and we’ll go back to the drawing board on Monday and work on the things that we can control,” Garcia said. “That’s blocking, tackling and making plays when it’s time to make a play.
“We’re going to continue build on what we do … and try not to shoot ourselves in the foot.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2022 at 6:39 AM.
