San Ramon Valley’s Matthew Garibaldi (24) runs with the ball for yardage against Clayton Valley Charter in the second quarter of their game at Clayton Valley Charter High School in Concord, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
CONCORD — Marco Jones had that look about him all week, the look of someone ready to make a huge impact on the field.
The two-way San Ramon Valley standout did it all Friday night. He had a huge tackle for loss on a key third-down play in the second quarter when the game was tight. He caught two touchdown passes, including one between two defenders. He had a strip sack in the second half.
“He came to play tonight, for sure,” SRV coach Aaron Becker said. “He’s remarkable. I knew his mindset was right from Monday through the whole of practice.”
With quarterback Luke Baker on target once again, the Wolves broke open the score in the second half and went on to beat Clayton Valley Charter 35-7 in an East Bay Athletic League Mountain Division opener for both teams.
The victory improved San Ramon Valley’s record to 6-0. Clayton Valley fell to 2-4.
Baker finished 20 of 24 passing for 334 yards and four touchdowns as SRV cleared its final hurdle before next week’s highly anticipated game at home against De La Salle.
The backbreaker for Clayton Valley — aside from miscues that stalled a couple of long drives — came on the first snap of the second half.
With SRV leading 14-0, Baker threw a pass to Owen Scott near the left sideline and the junior receiver let his speed take care of the rest.
Eighty yards later, Scott crossed the goal line to extend the margin to three touchdowns.
“That first play of the second half was kind of a killer,” Clayton Valley coach Nick Tisa said.
Clayton Valley effectively moved the ball at times. It chewed up half of the opening quarter while marching across midfield to start the game. But a high snap on second-and-seven at the SRV 33 resulted in a 16-yard loss.
After a punt, SRV started its first series on its own 9 and immediately went back five yards because of a false start.
Then Baker, who did his best to stay patient on the sideline, went to work.
“They had a long first drive and as an offense, you never really want that,” Baker said. “And then getting pinned back inside our own 10 and starting with a false-start penalty and then ending up with third-and-15. I think being able to convert on that first third-and-15 was huge for us.”
Baker moved the chains with a 23-yard pass over the middle to Zack Dodson. A few plays later, the quarterback connected with Dylan Deitsch for 42 yards to the 9.
On third-and-goal from the 10, Baker found Dodson in the back of the end zone for a 7-0 lead. SRV needed 10 plays to cover the 91 yards.
Clayton Valley went on another time-consuming drive in the second quarter, going from its own 5 to the SRV 18. But on third-and-2, Jones read the play from his linebacker spot and tackled the Clayton Valley runner for a six-yard loss.
An incomplete pass on fourth down ended the drive with 3:07 left before halftime, which was enough for Baker to lead SRV to another touchdown.
After a 22-yard completion to Hudson Brinton moved the Wolves to the 13, Baker found Jones over the middle on the next snap for a TD that extended the advantage to 14-0 with 25 seconds left in the half.
“Start of league play, we’ve got to prove a statement this year,” Jones said. “We lost to these guys last year. We have big games coming up for the rest of the season. We’ve got to execute. I feel like we did that today. To have a good Friday, you have to have a good Monday.”
After Sammy Avalos’ 1-yard run with 8:29 left made it 35-0, the rest of the game was played with a running clock.
Jeaden Underwood’s short TD run accounted for Clayton Valley’s only touchdown. He appeared to be down at the 2 when he lost control of the ball, but the officials counted the score.
Tisa said the mistakes earlier in the game were too much for his young team to overcome.
“We’re doing some good things,” he said. “Offensively, we had an eight-minute drive. We’ve got to score points. That’s kind of been our Achilles’ heel the past two weeks.”
For SRV, the game was the team’s first since senior running back John Ben Pau Mendoza suffered a season-ending knee injury two weeks ago against Liberty. He said he will have surgery on Wednesday.
“That was a real blow,” Becker said.
