After facing Valley Christian's defense in the first week of the 2019 season, Wilcox was no doubt battle-tested as it entered Levi's Stadium last Friday night for a showdown with San Benito. And though it took until the second half, the Chargers' offense came to life as they rallied past the Balers for a 34-20 victory to even their record heading into this week's non-league tilt with Leland.
Wilcox (1-1) got a big-time performance on the ground from senior Paul M Rosa, who carried the ball 29 times for 273 yards and two touchdowns, while quarterback Geremy McCollough also showed a huge progression from one game to the next, executing the veer offense while calling his own number 12 times for 80 yards and a pair of scores.
"Our guys ran hard, and our effort was tremendous," said Wilcox coach Paul Rosa. "We got a lot of yards after contact, which is always a big key for us."
That effort allowed the Chargers to overcome three lost fumbles and also overcome a 20-7 deficit, scoring the final 27 points of the game. Now, they turn their attention to Leland (1-1), which routed Aragon in its first game of the year before getting dominated on the line by Los Gatos last week in a 56-21 defeat. Still, the Chargers feature one of the section's most dynamic dual-threat athletes at quarterback in football and baseball standout Carson Yates. Yates threw for 257 yards and three scores last week, but was held to negative rushing yards by the Wildcats, a very rare occurrence.
"We have to keep (Yates) at bay. He is a very strong runner and a good player in general," Rosa added. "We also need to be able to take care of the ball on offense to try and keep him off the field."
This is the first meeting between these programs in 10 years, when Wilcox defeated Leland 47-28 in the CCS Division II semifinals.
