Football: Cal Hangs On Against Foothill

Jerrell Dunn ran for 138 yards and two touchdowns and withheld a late Foothill charge to win 22-17 in the East Bay Athletic League opener for both teams.

Despite the loss, Foothill coach Matt Sweeney came away pleased with his team's effort.

"It was as good an effort I've had from a team since I started coaching," said Sweeney, who has 211 wins in his coaching career at Foothill.

After a fairly one-sided first half that saw the Grizzlies jump out to a 15-0 advantage, the Falcons clawed their way back in the third quarter.

The Falcons got a field goal on other first drive of the second half and recovered a fumble on Cal's first play of the ensuing drive. Eight plays later, Grifith Gates scored on a 2-yard run to cut the deficit to 15-10. 

The teams traded punts before Dunn broke loose on a 31-yard touchdown to put Cal up 22-10 with six minutes, five seconds left in the game. Foothill's next drive ended with an interception in the end zone on fourth down which seemingly sealed the game for Cal.

It didn't.

Cal fumbled on its first play on the drive — again — and, once again, Foothill capitalized.

The Falcons first play after the turnover was a halfback pass from Jamirr Holland to quarterback Tommy Paulson for a 17-yard touchdown. It was the second time Sweeney called for a halfback pass — it worked the first time too, but the pass was dropped in the end zone — and it had the Grizzlies defense off guard.

When Cal got the ball back with a little over two minutes to play, it held on — literally. Dunn ran for a first down and quarterback Kevin Farley followed with a bruising first down run on third-and-8 to seal the game.

"They played like a typical Foothill team," Cal coach Eric Billeci said. "(Coming in) they were the best 1-2 team in the state."

It doesn't get any easier for the Falcons, who will now turn their attention to next week's game against De La Salle — which was a 62-0 winner against previously unbeaten Livermore Friday.

After next week, Foothill will have played three of the top-six and four of the top-12 teams in the San Francisco Chronicle's Top-25 football rankings. 

Ray Hudson had a big game for the Falcons, catching seven passes for 97 yards, while Paulson completed 11 of 26 passes for 142 yards.

"I thought Tommy (Paulson) made some big plays tonight," Sweeney said.

Aside from Dunn's big night, the Grizzlies struggled to find any offensive rhythm as Foothill's defensive line had an easy time getting penetration. 

The big play of the night was a 53-yard touchdown pass from Haley to Armani Washington with 4:13 left in the first half.

Cal travels to Monte Vista next week, where it will try to win back-to-back games against the Mustangs for the first time in history. 

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