DHS Football: Rams Clinch First GEL Championship With 22-6 Victory over Capital Christian

The improbable comeback is complete.

After losing its first six games of 2011, the football team rattled off four-straight victories in regular season play to win their first Golden Empire League title with a 22-6 victory over Capital Christian on Friday at Finney Field.

“They’ve gotten better every week,” Rams football coach Wes Besseghini said. “I told them to get better every week and I told them that it was going to be a long road. Every week they’ve gotten better and I think it’s been pretty evident.”

The Rams reach the playoffs after failing to win any of their preseason/non-league schedule games for the second-straight year. Besseghini felt that despite the winless start four weeks ago, his team was still playoff-caliber.

“I knew from the start of the season that we had a rough road in preseason, but in league anything is possible, and these guys did it tonight.”

Geraldo De La Cruz gave Dixon a 3-0 lead midway through the first quarter with a 36-yard field goal. Dixon would force the Cougars to turn the ball over on downs inside its 20 twice in the first quarter, and placed Capital in another fourth-down situation in Dixon territory midway through the second quarter.

This time, the Rams defense couldn’t stick, as Cougars’ quarterback Jacob Woehler found Bo Reid for a 28-yard touchdown to put Capital up 6-3.

Dixon didn’t waste time retaking the lead on the following drive. Two plays into it, Marcos Pangelinan connected with Anthony Salaber for a 44-yard reception and was tackled at Cougars’ one-yard line. Hall would punch the ball into the end zone on the next play to give the Rams a 10-6 advantage.

Capital’s Demitiri Crenshaw would return the ensuing kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown, but the score was negated due to a block in the back.

“We had a chance to change the momentum with the touchdown return on the kickoff,” Cougars coach Phil Grams said. “I’ll have to look at the film but we thought it was a bad call...We get that touchdown we’re kind of rolling.”

With less than one minute to go in the first half, Besseghini called for a fake punt, which failed miserably. Instead of the kick, punter Chris Rico rushed for a six-yard and turned the ball over on downs to Capital at the Dixon 48.

“It was a championship game,” Besseghini said. “We had nothing to lose. So we pulled out every trick we could.”

On fourth-and-two from the Rams’ 40 and time winding down, Woehler found Austin Wolfe at the Dixon two-yard line to set up first-and-goal with less than 12 seconds left in the second quarter.

Despite the short distance to goal, Grams called back-to-back passing plays. Woehler's first pass was thrown into the hands of Anthony Garza in the end zone, but he bobbled the ball and dropped the pass. The second was thrown at the feet of Austin Wolfe to end the half.

“That’s on me, we should have ran the ball right there,” Grams said. “I was trying to get two plays for one.”

Had his team scored though on both the return and its late first half chance inside Dixon five-yard line, Grams felt things would have been different.

“I think those two plays changed the whole ball game,” he said. “We would have been up probably 21-7 at half instead of down 10-6. I think that changed the ball game.”

The Rams pulled away in the second half, holding the Cougars to just 80 yards of total offense and outscoring them 12-0. The Capital defense allowed Dixon to rush for 177 yards in the final two quarters.

Korey Hall finished with 140 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns, recording his second-straight 100-yard game.

“He runs like a man,” Besseghini said. “He runs like a man among boys right now. I’ll take that all night long.”

Besseghini said said he couldn’t pinpoint one player as the difference-maker Friday night.

“I can’t pick one guy because that whole team stepped up today,” he said.

The Rams will be playing an opponent that’s yet to be determined next Friday in the first round of the California Interscholatic Federation Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs. Besseghini knows whoever it is, it won’t be easy.

“I told my kids once we get to playoffs anything could happen and I believe that,” he said. “These guys are a great group of kids. They’ve worked hard. They’ve worked better every week. I think anything is possible.”

Dixon plays Colfax on Friday at 7 p.m., at Colfax High School
24995 Ben Taylor Road, Colfax.

Dixon 22, Capital Christian 6

Capital Christian 0 6 0 0 — 6
Dixon 3 7 0 12 — 22

Scoring summary
7:51, 1st: D — De La Cruz 36 field goal

6”35, 2nd: C — Reid 28 pass from Woehler (kick failed)

4:31, 2nd: D — Hall 1 run (De La Cruz kick)

8:14, 4th: D — Pangelinan 18 run (kick failed)

1:03, 4th: D — Hall 11 run (run failed)

Individual Statistics

Rushing (car-yards): C — Cranshaw 10-65, Wolfe 8-15, Kirk 1-(-5), Reid 11-43, Woehler 2-7. D — Hall 16-140, Pangelinan 12-61, Bell 2-32, Rico 3-3, Miller 1-0. Passing (comp-att-yards-ints): C — Woehler 8-20-98-1. D — Miller 1-5-5-0, Pangelinan 1-4-44-0 . Receiving (rec-yards): C — McCarthy 2-25, Kirk 1-2, Cranshaw 2-5, Wolfe 2-66. D — Salaber 1-44.

Team offense (rush-pass-total)

Capital Christian — 125-98-223

Dixon — 236-49-285

Fumbles/lost: C 0/0; D — 2/1.

Records: Capital Christian 5-5, (3-2 GEL), Dixon 4-6 (4-1)