FOLSOM, Calif. – The way the Sierra Foothill League matchup between Prep2Prep Northern California No. 3 ranked Folsom and No. 7 Oak Ridge started was nothing like how it finished.
After the host Bulldogs took an early lead, it was close until the fourth quarter when the dam broke and Folsom outscored Oak Ridge by three touchdowns to post a 42-21 win Friday night in the league opener for both teams. It was the 20th straight victory in the series for Folsom since 2006, including playoff games.
The Bulldogs raced out to a 14-0 lead before the Trojans cut it to 14-7 at the half and tied it 14-14 near the end of the third quarter.
The game was not without some miscues by Folsom quarterback Ryder Lyons. There was also a questionable coaching decision by head coach Paul Doherty, but after Oak Ridge made a final push to cut it to 28-21 with 3:39 left, the Bulldogs answered with two explosive TDs in a span of less than a minute and a half to put the game away.
Lyons, a 6-4, 205-pound sophomore completed 21-of-31 passes for 379 yards and three TDs, plus he ran for a fourth score. However, he fumbled four snaps from the shotgun formation, three of which resulted in sacks.
The debatable coaching decision by Doherty came with around five minutes left in the half and with Folsom leading 14-0. The Bulldogs were facing fourth-and-three from their own 42. Rather than punt the ball, albeit into a strong wind, he chose to go for it.
Doherty called a pass play but the toss from Lyons to Daymion Rivera came up short, giving the ball over to Oak Ridge at the Folsom 43.
At that point Folsom had outgained Oak Ridge 217-48, but from there the Trojans became re-invigorated. They drove 57 yards in 10 plays and scored on a 2-yard run by Eric Orme Jr with only 12.2 seconds left in the first half. The junior running back carried the ball the final five plays of the drive and eight times in total.
Orme would finish scoring all three Oak Ridge TDs on short runs, but despite running through tacklers he was only able to muster 76 yards on 25 carries against the stout Folsom defense.
After the first Orme touchdown, the Folsom offense seemed to lose its steam in the third quarter and the first half of the fourth. During that span they only had three short drives until a 10-yard end around by sophomore wide receiver Jameson Powell with 5:41 remaining, in which he stretched out to put the ball on the pylon to give the Bulldogs a 21-14 lead.
Lyons followed that up with an 18-yard TD pass to Brian Ray to make it 28-14, and although Oak Ridge would score again, at that point the momentum had swung back to Folsom.
“That was a coaching error right there where we were being greedy and undisciplined, and going for it and putting our defense in a bad spot,” said Doherty. “In hindsight it was a bad decision. It puts them right back in the game and we have to own that and get better.”
“We haven’t been clicking the way we want to on offense, so it was pressing it,” Doherty continued. “But that’s what this game is. It’s all about momentum and we got it back. Every time we play these guys it’s momentum.”
The momentum came full force after the final Oak Ridge tally on an 85-yard touchdown pass from Lyons to Ray, followed by a 35-yard romp to the house by Daymion Rivera.
Ray, a senior wide receiver, finished with five receptions for 138 yards and two touchdowns. Rivera, a junior running back, had 45 yards rushing on four carries.
Folsom deferred to start the game and after holding Oak Ridge to three-and-out, got the ball on the Trojans 47 and scored in seven plays. The touchdown came on a 24-yard pass to senior Elijah Gulewich on a play where it looked like Lyons was going to be sacked twice, but he escaped and rolled right find Gulewich open in the end zone.
The Oak Ridge second drive did produce a first down, but was ended on third-and-six when Trojans quarterback Joaquin Graves-Mercado had his pass batted down by Bulldogs junior Taniela Tupou to force a punt.
Folsom got the ball on its own 43 and Lyons marched them 57 yards in eight plays culminating in a perfectly executed fake end around hand-off to Ray that allowed Lyons to tuck it in himself and bootleg around right end to make it 14-0.
After the Folsom defense stopped another Oak Ridge dive in seven plays on a sack by Gulewich, the Bulldogs had another chance to pad their lead prior to the decision not to punt.
On the first play of the ensuing drive, Lyons fumbled for the first time, but this was the only one of the four fumbles in which he wasn’t sacked. Lyons scooped up the ball and in a wild scramble he connected with senior wide receiver Abram Woodson. However, the drive ended when Oak Ridge blocked a 29-yard field goal attempt.
The Folsom win takes a little bit of the sting out of a 14-7 home loss to NorCal No. 2 De La Salle two weeks ago and re-affirms the Bulldogs as the top team in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section. Their other loss was 21-14 to NorCal No. 1 Serra, and like the De La Salle game they were highly competitive in that one as well.
Next up for Folsom (4-2, 1-0) is a matchup at NorCal No. 9 Rocklin. The Thunder were a 42-3 winner in their league opener against cross-town Whitney.
“There’s not a down week in our league,” Doherty remarked. “There’s a lot of loaded teams in this league like these guys and Rocklin. We just have to be ready to play every week and take it one day at a time.”
Oak Ridge (5-1, 0-1) made a valiant effort after falling into a two-touchdown hole, but a big comeback and upset was just not to be.
“We started out a little slow, but the kids kept fighting to get back in it, but we just couldn’t get over the top,” said Oak Ridge head coach Casey Taylor. “Every time we seemed to be back in it, they made a play.”
The Trojans now have to re-group for a matchup on the road at a school where Taylor had a lot of success: Del Oro.
Del Oro (5-1, 0-1) was ranked No. 12 in last week’s P2P NorCal rankings, but that will be changing after the Golden Eagles lost 53-29 at Granite Bay, which will likely move into the NorCal top 25.
