Leading by seven at the half against an opponent which had been able to score in bunches all season long, Wilcox knew it needed to create some separation against Kaiser-Fontana in the CIF 3-A title game. The Chargers did exactly that in the third quarter, and then continued on their way to the 41-27 victory and the program's first-ever state championship.
Wilcox led 20-13 at the break, but got the ball to start the third quarter, and went on a 13-play, 87-yard drive, after junior Paul M Rosa was only able to fall on the kickoff at his own 13-yard line. Gabe Herrera capped the drive with a three-yard scoring run, part of a big night for the Wilcox senior. Kaiser responded by driving to the Chargers' 40-yard line, but the Wilcox defense held on fourth-and-four, and Herrera broke loose for a 60-yard jaunt on the next play from scrimmage to give the Chargers a 34-13 lead with 4:31 left in the third quarter.
"We felt like they couldn't stop us going into the game," said Herrera, who ran for a career-high 231 yards and four touchdowns. "We proved that we were right."
In fact, the Chargers ran for 425 yards in the game, and did not attempt a single pass. Rosa added 104 yards and a score, while quarterback Alex Adame executed the veer to near perfection, running for 90 yards and a touchdown.
"We grinded out yards, and that's what won us the game. We knew they weren't very physical, and we knew from the first play that we were going to win this game," Rosa said. "We were the tougher team."
A pair of Trey Tribble touchdown passes closed the gap to seven points, with 10:08 left in the game, but the Chargers then drove 80 yards, finishing the drive with a three-yard scoring run by Rosa for the final points of the night.
Kaiser was led by senior tailback Christian Hunter, who ran for 204 yards on 27 carries, but those numbers were pedestrian by his standards, considering that he ran for over 3,800 yards during the year. His lone touchdown run of the night gave him 55 rushing scores for the season.
With the win, Wilcox concludes its season with a 14-1 overall record, the lone blemish coming in the CCS Division 1 title game to Menlo-Atherton, who also won a state title on Saturday night, defeating Lincoln-San Diego for the 3-AA championship.
