Willow Glen’s Chris Amann (21) is lifted up by Nolan James (70) after scoring a touchdown against Leland in the fourth quarter at Willow Glen High School Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024, in San Jose, Calif. (Photo by Jim Gensheimer)
SAN JOSE — Willow Glen’s brand of football isn’t flashy.
The Rams aren’t going to overwhelm you with explosive plays. They may pop one occasionally.
But that’s not their M.O.
Willow Glen is going to ram the line of scrimmage again and again, both offensively and defensively, until it gets its way. And this season, that’s been enough for the Rams to win every game they’ve played.
Willow Glen capped its historic year with a 23-0 win over Leland on Thursday night in San Jose. It is the Rams’ first undefeated regular-season campaign in the MaxPreps era (since 2004) and believed to be their first since 1966.
With Thursday night’s victory, Willow Glen (10-0, 5-0) also clinched the outright championship in the Blossom Valley Athletic League Santa Teresa – Valley Division.
“I get emotional thinking about it,” said coach Oscar Caballero. “It’s a special thing that happened to a special group. I really believe that our group’s a special group. From school, from players to families to community, everything in between is special. The way they play this sport and commit to the sport, special.
“We talked about it right before the game, we talked about it at halftime. We’re not a perfect team. We’re not perfect players, we’re not perfect coaches, but we’re imperfectly perfect. We were meant to be around each other.”
Perhaps it was meant to be. But Willow Glen still had to go out and beat Leland (7-3, 4-1), and the Rams did so in the methodical fashion they have perfected all season.
On the first play of the second quarter, Chris Amann capped a 12-play drive with a 3-yard touchdown run. Later in the period, Willow Glen forced and recovered a fumble on a hook-and-ladder play by Leland.
The Rams didn’t mess around on their next drive. On the first play, quarterback Aiden Akery found Gavin Ferraro on a deep shot down the right sideline, and Ferraro sprinted away for a 53-yard exclamation point right before the half.
“It’s the energy and the dedication,” Akery said. “All of us want it more than the other team, really. And we’re always on each other, trying to fix up every little mistake. We want perfection, and that’s what we’re striving to get.”
Aydin Babic stretched Willow Glen’s lead with a 37-yard field goal late in the third quarter, then the Rams unveiled their pièce de résistance. Up 16-0, the Rams opted for an onside kick and executed it perfectly.
Babic booted a perfect popup for Spencer Bartlinski, who settled under the ball at Leland’s 46-yard line. Later in the quarter, Willow Glen rolled the dice one more time and came through once again, sealing the victory with a fourth-down, 35-yard TD pass from Akery to Amann.
“If you look at this game, we were able to do the things that we were able to do because we were aggressive,” Caballero said. “That’s how we played in all three phases of the game, so it paid off.”
Akery, as he has been all year, was the catalyst for Willow Glen’s offense. The fearless junior, in his first year as a starter, ran for 61 yards on 16 carries and completed 12 of 17 passes for 195 yards.
Akery has led Willow Glen in both passing and rushing all season, and the Rams wouldn’t be undefeated without the consistent contributions of their signal-caller each week.
“Everything he’s done this year has been exactly what we needed,” Caballero said. “Honestly, we didn’t know what we had at the beginning of the year. And gosh, boy, has he been plenty for us. He’s been plenty, for sure.”
All is not lost for Leland. Though the Chargers will not hang a banner this season as league champions, they will have a CCS playoff game to look forward to next week.
That was the silver lining coach Kelly King Jr. emphasized to keep his players’ spirits up in the postgame huddle.
“Definitely give them a lot of credit,” King Jr. said. “10-0, they deserved everything they got. They basically came out and kicked our butt. We didn’t play very well, and then they kind of took it to us a little bit.
“A lot of times when you lose a game like this, your season’s over or something like that. We’re in the unique position where we’re playing for a championship, but if you lose, you get to keep playing. Obviously, they’re disappointed, but it’s not the end of the season and we’ll get them refocused for the playoffs.”
Both teams will advance to various CCS brackets, where they will have the opportunity to pursue their goal of winning a section championship. But only one team celebrated a league title on Thursday night.
For Caballero, the championship capped an emotional full-circle return. Caballero missed six games last season while serving a suspension for a sideline incident that occurred during Willow Glen’s game at Leland.
He returned for game one this year, and the Rams have not lost since.
“We took the approach of going at it week by week,” Caballero said. “Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that this is how the regular season would end. It’s a rewarding feeling. We talk about things and how to respond to them. And I hope that I was a model for our players. I really do.
“I think that our program is able to get over some adversity, and it was good to see resilient young men be able to do that.”
