SAN JOSE — A heavy favorite going into the game, Evergreen Valley trailed at halftime but righted itself in the second half to pull out a 22-8 victory at winless James Lick on Friday night.
The Cougars, who played three “B” league teams from the Blossom Valley Athletic League in non-league play, improved to 4-2 overall and 2-0 in the BVAL’s West Valley Division. They host Gunderson (4-3, 3-0) next Friday in a game that will likely decide the West Valley championship and paint a clearer picture on the possibility of moving up to one of the Santa Teresa divisions next season.
“For sure, that’s been one of the goals since I’ve been here, moving up from the West Valley,” Evergreen coach Gabe Resendez said. “Gunderson has always been a good matchup. And with me coaching there before. It always means a little more. We knew Gunderson was at the top and we’d need to get past Gunderson.”
Evergreen Valley’s Kenneth Brown (5) runs with the ball against James Lick in the second quarter at James Lick High School in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
Looking past James Lick (0-6, 0-3) might have been understandable as the Comets came into the game having scored 13 points their first five games while allowing 202. But Jesus Cabrera recovered an Evergreen fumble on the first possession of the game and the Comets, with only 19 players in uniform, punched it in with Luis Delgado scoring on a 1-yard run to cap an 11-play drive. Kevin Gutierrez passed to Fernando Gonzalez for a two-point conversion and James Lick had an 8-0 lead.
Evergreen got its first points with just 33 seconds left in the half on a 5-yard run by Dylan Ly to make it 8-6 at the half.
The Cougars recovered a fumble on the second-half kickoff and went 25 yards in six plays with quarterback Kenneth Brown scoring from the 1. Amardeep Grewal ran for the two-point conversion and a 14-8 lead.
James Lick planned on using two quarterbacks, Gutierrez and Juan Escoto. But by the time the fourth quarter rolled around both were banged up. So the Comets were reduced to moving players from other positions to quarterback and relying on the power running of Delgado on direct snaps from center in a version of an extremely old school single wing alignment.
James Lick’s Juan Escoto (6) runs with the ball against Evergreen Valley’s Ethan Le (70) in the first quarter at James Lick High School in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
That approach had its limitations, and in a long-yardage situation Evergreen’s Gavin Guerrero came up with an interception and the Cougars needed only three plays, all runs by Ly of 8, 26 and 12 yards, to score the clinching touchdown with 3:14 left.
Ly finished with 108 yards rushing on 11 carries.
“That’s the second game in a row he led us in rushing,” Resendez said. “He’s becoming a dependable back.”
. .
James Lick, once the home of Jim Plunkett, the only Heisman Trophy winner to ever come out of a Santa Clara County high school, has been going through a dreadful period in its football history, losing 34 of its last 36 games. But Friday;’s performance was a step in the right direction.
“Any coach taking over that program deserves a lot of credit because I know how tough it is,” Resendez said. “Growing up in the East Side district I know how tough James Lick can be. But we’ve always had good games with them, especially on this field.”
The program has a junior varsity team for the first time in five years, since before the pandemic. And that JV team won the earlier game of the evening 20-2 to improve to 3-3.
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“We have 50 in the program, 25 on varsity and 25 on JV,” said first-year coach Anthony Price, an on-campus employee as a campus monitor. “Last year they had only 17. We are learning and getting better every day.”
Delgado finished with 73 hard-earned yards on 17 carries.
“He is the best athlete on our team and he is going to be a college running back,” Price said of the 5-foot-10, 215-pound Delgado. “He missed the first three games, came back and had a 4.0. The kid is amazing. He is our superstar.”
Editor’s note: This matchup won this week’s readers-pick-a-game-for-us-to-cover poll. Look for the next poll Monday.
Evergreen Valley’s Amardeep Grewal (13) runs with the ball against Jesus Cabrera (26) in the third quarter James Lick High School in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
James Lick’s Juan Escoto (6) runs with the ball against Evergreen Valley’s Brandon Alvarez (65) in the first quarter at James Lick High School in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
Evergreen Valley’s Kenneth Brown (5) runs with the ball against James Lick at James Lick High School in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)
Evergreen Valley’s Joziah Millares (10) runs with the ball in the second quarter at James Lick High School in San Jose, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024. (Shae Hammond/Bay Area News Group)