Home from a win against Long Beach City College 36-20, Mt. SAC Football is making moves to face Chaffey College at home in Covina District Field for their third game of the fall season.
Mt. SAC Football Assistant Coach Evans Roderick spoke with SAC Sidelines about the SACDAWGS’ performance in the game against Long Beach.
“It was an outstanding performance. They had nine possessions; they had 23 plays. There were five punts. There was a sack in the endzone for the two point conversion, and then there was an interception…We always talk about momentum. There’s momentum shifts in every game,” Roderick said.
SAC Sidelines asked quarterback Zachary Rangel about the pass to fullback Yamar Woods, which resulted in Woods’ first career touchdown.
“It felt awesome. You know, Woods was one of my roommates for, for awhile. I know how much it meant to him,” Rangel said. “We repped that play in practice, worked on it a lot. Getting him that ball and just putting it in his hands, he was gonna get a touchdown.”
The team and coaching staff knew Long Beach City College were not up against an easy opponent.
“Unless you’re playing a very inferior team, you can escalate your game all the way throughout, but this team had speed and we knew that they were not going to quit, and they were gonna come out and play hard in the second half…we have to meet that energy,” Roderick said.
Roderick noted that getting over-confident is not what SACDAWGS are about.
“When you go in 22 nothing, sometimes you think the game is over. We as coaches know that is not the case. We have seen enough football games that end in the last second, but these kids haven’t played that much football, so thats what happened,” Roderick said. “They got some breaks, we gave them some breaks, we got a stop, and then we scored. I never thought the game was in jeopardy of us losing, but we did not like the way it was going, you know, gotta stop that momentum.”
The Mounties face Chaffey College this Saturday. Players and coaching staff both know what is at stake. Mt. SAC lost 13-0 last season, playing on Chaffey’s territory. On Saturday, Chaffey will be on at SACDAWGS, at Covina District Field.
Rangel said the team is ready for Chaffey.
“We’re extremely ready. You know, they got us last year. We are definitely preparing just like every other game as far as we can making sure everybody knows what they are doing and just ready to go,” Rangel said.
Despite last year’s loss, Roderick gave SAC Sidelines a rundown of how SACDAWGS will charge forward.
“We have respect for everybody. Mt. SAC has that brand,” Roderick said. “We’ve won four state championships.”
Despite past successes, Roderick said the team recognized their flaws against Chaffey.
“Chaffey beat us last year 13-0. The first two games we averaged 40 points a game. We go over there, our starting quarterback was hurt. He didn’t play,” Roderick said. “Not making excuses, but we played two rookies. We didn’t manage the game where we should, and we did not execute, and they beat us.”
With the loss came fuel to add to the SACDAWGS’ fire, knowing Chaffey is going to be just as driven.
“They are going to come over with the intentions of beating us again, but this is a different football team, and we expect to have their best shot. Everybody wants to beat us. They circle Mt. SAC on their calendar. We don’t circle anybody, but they circle Mt. SAC, so it’s gonna be a good game,” Roderick said.
