It was a busy week on the Del Oro-Loomis campus.
The football team was still practicing on the field and final exams were taking place in the classrooms, but when school let out on Friday afternoon the Golden Eagles took a short trip southwest to Sacramento and got an “A on the Sacramento State gridiron after winning the Division II-AA Bowl Game title with a thrilling but low scoring 16-13 victory over Camarillo.
“After playing in seven elimination games we passed our final exam,” said Del Oro Coach Casey Taylor.
“It was a complete team effort,” continued Taylor. “It’s been that way all season and especially the last eight weeks.
Had the Golden Eagles not won their last two Sierra Foothill League games they would not have advanced to the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs where they surprised some folks by winning the Division II title.
Now they’ve won eight straight games by pulling off the biggest surprise of all by pretty much silencing the high-powered offense of a Camarillo team that came into the game averaging almost 48-points a game.
The game was a match-up of two programs with different styles of play, but in the end it was the grind-it-out style of Del Oro that got the job done.
The big producer was Camrion Davis. The solidly-built and deceptively quick 5-9, 193-pound junior was not the primary running back for most of the season but over the past few weeks he’s been getting more and more carries.
Against Camarillo he rushed the ball 24 times for a career-high 197 yards and two touchdowns, including a 7-yard touchdown on the game’s opening drive that gave Del Oro a 7-0 lead it would never relinquish, and a 58-yard run that put Del Oro up 16-6 with 10:38 left to play.
“We have a lot of playmakers on this team and I knew someone was going to step up so I put it on me,” Davis remarked.
“Camrion Davis was just fantastic. He played with a lot of heart and pretty much carried us tonight,” Taylor said.
The first half was all Del Oro as the Golden Eagles led 10-0 after two quarters by moving the ball on the ground and coming up with the answers for the high-powered Camarillo offense with a defense that only allowed 147 yards of total offense and shut out the Scorpions in the first half of a game for the first time this season. In fact, Camarillo had a first half low of 14 points in its first 15 games.
“Our defense just kept making the big plays when we needed them to,” Taylor said. “The whole team has been so resilient after starting the season 2-6 but particularly the defense.”
Del Oro kept the Scorpions in check the first two quarters but after deferring the opening kickoff Camarillo (15-1) got the ball to begin the second half and began showing signs of life in the third period.
They stalled on their first drive as did Del Oro, but in its second drive the Scorpions rode the arm of quarterback Jake Constantine to cut it to 10-6 on a fourth down 18-yard touchdown pass from Constantine to Frankie Tostado.
Camarillo would get a late score on a Constantine pass that was almost intercepted but tipped into the hands of Thomas Janke for a 4-yard TD pass with 1:53 left.
Everyone knew the onside kick was coming but when Del Oro recovered it they were able to run out the clock.
Besides the heroics of Davis the play of Del Oro quarterback Stone Smartt was solid and mistake free. He finished with 120 yards passing and 31 yards rushing but he wasn’t sacked and after coming into the game with 15 interceptions, including two last week in the win over Liberty-Bakersfield, he had no picks against Camarillo.
The third score for Del Oro came on a 38-yard field goal by Bryan Willhide.
“The difference is they were able to run the football when they needed to,” said Camarillo Coach Jack Willard.
The Scorpions actually ended up winning the total yardage battle 355 to 341, and Constantine finished 25 of 40 for 320 yards and the two TDs, but he was sacked three times and intercepted once.
With the Bowl Game win Del Oro becomes the fourth team from the Metropolitan Sacramento area to win a state title.
Grant-Sacramento was the first after winning the Open title in 2010, Folsom won the Division II title in 2010 and the Division I championship last season, and Granite Bay was the 2012 Division I winner.
“I’m just so proud of the kids,” Taylor said. “Tonight was the culmination of everything we’ve been working for.”
It was tight but they Golden Eagles aced their final exam and are now state champions.
