PLEASANTON – Jake Goldsworthy felt the Amador Valley High School football team wasn’t getting enough respect prior to its game with unbeaten Monte Vista on Friday night.
If that was the case at all before, that figures to change now after the standout senior running back and the Dons earned their biggest win of the young season.
The 6-foot-1, 210-pound Goldsworthy rushed for 227 yards and three touchdowns as 16th-ranked Amador Valley, propelled by a huge second quarter, outlasted No. 12 Monte Vista 41-27 before a raucous near-capacity crowd that was celebrating the school’s centennial.
With his team trailing by 14 early in the second quarter, Goldsworthy raced down the sideline for a 64-yard touchdown that changed the game’s momentum, as Amador Valley (3-1) reached the end zone three more times before the half to jump ahead 28-21 and never trail again.
“We wanted this game so much,” said Goldsworthy, whose other touchdowns came on runs of 20 and 75 yards. “We were underdogs by every single source out there and I really took that to heart. It was personal this week.”
The 41 points the Dons scored was 14 more than they had totaled in their first three games combined in a one-touchdowns loss to El Cerrito and close wins over Campolindo and Acalanes.
“We know we can run the ball. We’re physical,” Amador Valley coach Danny Jones said. “So we know we can churn the clock a little bit. Tonight was crazy. We did not expect to put 41 on the board.”
Amador Valley closes nonleague play next week against rival Foothill, then starts East Bay Athletic League Valley Division play at home against Dougherty Valley on Oct. 6. At that point, promising junior quarterback Tristan Tia, a transfer from Granada, will be eligible to play.
“We’ve been kind of the underdog every week,” Jones said. “We know we have a really good football team, but people want to kind of continue to kind of count us out because we don’t have the quarterback back yet, and when we get the quarterback back, it’s on, man. Because he’s special and we’re excited about that.”
Monte Vista (3-1) piled up over 250 yards of offense in the first half, thanks mostly to the arm of quarterback Brayden Turner, but stalled its own momentum by throwing two interceptions and losing one fumble.
Three plays after Dons senior Nate Jetter intercepted Turner and returned it to the Monte Vista 25, Ben Stout caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Aidan Foley with 34 seconds left in the second quarter.
That put Amador Valley ahead by a touchdown and capped a sequence in which the Dons scored four times in just over 10 minutes, putting Monte Vista behind for the first time this season.
“We didn’t come out as tough on defense in the first half, obviously,” Monte Vista coach Johnny Millard said. “(Amador Valley) did a good job of sticking with their bread and butter and we didn’t rise to the challenge at some times. Then, turning over the football doesn’t help at pretty inopportune times.
“The difference of that game is a few plays and when you play good football teams, it usually is.”
One came with just under 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter when Amador Valley took a two-touchdown lead. Facing fourth-and-10 from Monte Vista’s 36, Foley, on a screen pass, found Jetter, who danced through multiple defenders before he reached the end zone for a 41-27 lead.
Jones said the Dons debated what to do on fourth down.
“We went back and forth three different times on what we were going to call,” Jones said. “I told Jetter what we were going to call, but out of a different formation. Jet, reluctantly enough. said, ‘Coach, I don’t like it,’ and I said, ‘It’s OK, it’s a safe throw for Foley and if we get tackled, that’s fine.’ But it ended up ended up hitting.”
Millard lamented the miscues but the Mustangs were only down seven points when they got the ball back with 2:28 left in the fourth quarter. Turner drove the ball to midfield but on fourth-and-15, standout running back Julian McMahan was stopped three yards short of a first down with just under a minute to play.
Amador Valley took over on downs and with Monte Vista out of timeouts, ran out the clock to improve its winning streak to three games.
“Our defense has been insane all season,” Goldsworthy said. “We’ve held teams’ week in and week out and it’s just been amazing.”
