VimSince03
Well-known member
Mousegriz said:
I have some thoughts on that game I haven't shared. Zac deserved most of the recognition he received for his performance in that game especially on offense. He grinded out 61 rushing yards at 2.5 YPC but he picked up so many huge conversions to keep the chains moving on the ground plus two touchdowns. Zac only threw 12 times and completed 8...but three were for touchdowns at big moments in the game. Offensively, it was just an overall clutch performance by Zac all night accounting for all 5 touchdowns. In Game 1 vs. Billings West, Sentinel's offense put up 326 yards as opposed to 278 in the title game but the major difference was how much better the defense played in the title game.
Defensively, Zac deserves credit for being part of the pressure applied to Billings West but Sentinel's defense as a whole was phenomenal in the title game. I actually thought BW did their best to take away Zac as much as they could but the result was other Sentinel players stepping up big time. Billings West's star QB Isaiah Claunch had his worst game of his career as the Spartan pass rush was vicious. The only true way to shut down a great passing game is consistent pressure and the Golden Bear O-line was turned around all night. Sentinel rolled a ton of coverage at Taco and the biggest surprise was Caden Dowler, Riley Bergeson, Max Kimball, and Max Murphy not taking advantage at all like they had all year. Billings West tried to get the ground game established but game script changed when they got behind early. The best defensive performance of that game was Charlie Kirgan who had a career game. The entire Spartan secondary (JJ Dolan, Connor McCarthy, Drew Klumph, Adam Jones, and Easton Leadbetter) deserved a ton of credit as they were completely in unison with their coverage packages. Chase Williams was great in the middle. You could just tell they were well-coached and prepared. In Game 1 vs. Billings West, Sentinel allowed 339 yards of offense with big games from Michael Deleon and Taco Dowler with Claunch passing for 239 yards. In the title game, West only had 135 offensive yards, Claunch threw for 36 yards, Dowler had one catch for 6, and Deleon was held to 3.6 yards a carry. One of the better defensive performances you'll see in a AA title game.
uke: 