Big Chabot Win A Head-Turner

By Phil Jensen
The Chabot College football team is developing quite a home-field advantage at Mt. Eden High.
Chabot delivered its second straight dominating home performance this season, as it walloped Gavilan 42-0 on Saturday afternoon.
Similar to the 80-13 victory over Cabrillo to open the season, Chabot (2-1) produced a touchdown near the beginning of the game. On Gavilan’s second offensive play, Chabot’s Oziah Clement returned an interception 45 yards for a touchdown just 70 seconds into the game.
“Our whole thought process going through the week was just execute, be fundamentally sound,” said Clement, a De La Salle High School graduate.
The Gladiators defense certainly executed their gameplan; it limited Gavilan (0-3) to 10 total yards of offense, five rushing and five passing.
“I think we’ve got a good group of guys who want to play for each other,” said Chabot coach Brett McMurray of his defensive unit. “I think they’re very team-oriented. … unselfish.”
Chabot defensive end Esala Vavao gave his team a short field to work with for its first possession when he pounced on a fumble on the Gavilan 22-yard-line. Three plays later, the Gladiators reached the end zone again for a two-touchdown lead.
Monty Turner, a freshman who graduated from Menlo-Atherton, juked left and slipped through a high tackle attempt for an 18-yard rushing touchdown. Turner, who rushed for a game-high 101 yards and three touchdowns, all in the first three quarters, is the son of former NFL player Michael Turner, McMurray said.
Monty Turner stepped in for running back Inoke Stotler, who missed the game with a rib injury, McMurray said.
“I’m pleased with Monty,” McMurray said about the freshman. “He’s a hard worker, he doesn’t say much, he just shows up to work every day.”
Turner also scored on second-quarter runs of 28 and 6-yards to help Chabot take a 35-0 halftime lead.
Chabot scored three touchdowns in the first quarter, capped by a 45-yard diving catch in the end zone by Sefa Stephens on a pass from Deontae Faison.
Stephens, a 6-foot-3 sophomore from Valley Christian-San Jose, also made a leaping catch in the end zone on a 20-yard pass from backup quarterback AJ Rich for the final touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter. Stephens finished with a game-high five catches for 93 yards.
“We wanted to get him the football. He’s a really dynamic athlete,” McMurray said of Stephens.
The turnovers that Clement and Vava collected weren’t the only turnovers for the outstanding Chabot defense. Kali Moa grabbed a first-quarter interception and Chris Barnett had a fumble recovery in the second quarter. Chabot also had three sacks.
Now the Gladiators will be looking toward their matchup against Shasta at Mt. Eden High School at 1 p.m, on Sept. 19. Shasta is 3-0 after a 35-10 victory over Los Medanos on Saturday.
McMurray was thinking ahead after the Gavilan win.
“We have a lot of really quality opponents in the future and we need to get a lot better on offense and defensively continue to do what we’re doing,” he said.
Note: There were 10-minute quarters for the third and fourth quarters in the Gavilan game, instead of the usual 15 minutes.