Couple of thoughts about what happened around the area tonight…

I was out at Amador-Freedom, so we’ll start there.

- I really thought Amador wouldn’t have much trouble tonight based on recent history. The Dons had won 19 straight non-league games during the regular season and Freedom was 1-9 against EBAL teams in its last 10 games, with an average margin of defeat right around 21 per game. But none of that measures up to what you learn when you actually see a team for the first time in a season. The Dons were simply undersized on the lines. They couldn’t get any penetration into the Freedom backfield and Ryan Rodriguez had all day to pick apart the secondary. Kean Stancil is a very mobile QB for the Dons, but they need to find another playmaker or they will be in for a lonnnng season.

-Congrats to Dougherty Valley for opening its first varsity season with a W. According to our writer, Matt Schwab, Richmond was a mess offensively and despite having a lot of size, they weren’t cohesive enough as a unit to mount much of an effort.

-Las Lomas gets its first big win of the year. Taking down Mitty of the WCAL. I haven’t got a chance to talk with Ben Enos, who was at the game, about it yet, or read his story, but I’d imagine it was a lot of Diante Jackson. Guy is a stud.

-Nothing all that surprising tonight. It was kind of like a soft opening, a couple of games just to get a taste of what the season is going to be like and next week is more like a grand opening with a full slate of games … more to come throughout the weekend.

Durkin adding some thoughts here…

-I was out at the Island Bowl and Encinal looked pretty impressive. Dominique Sashington and Jonathan Brown are easily one of the best running back-quarterback duos in the East Bay. Sashington had 72 yards and two TDs on nine carries. Plus, he got things going for Encinal when he intercepted a pass on the game’s third play and returned it 26 yards for a TD. Brown only had 13 yards passing, but ran nine times for a game-high 130 yards. His biggest play was a 62-yard TD run and he also made several big plays as a LB. Alameda was expected to be young and fairly inexperienced and that showed. They’ll be a decent team, but it’s going to take some time.

-The sympathy award of the night has to go out to the kids at Emery. Playing in their first varsity game in six years, they lost 50-0 to Justin-Siena-Napa and that came in just a little more than two quarters. The game was called off with 9:42 left it the third quarter. But the 10:42 mark of the second quarter, the game was already using a running clock. The reason for calling off the game, according to Ted Sillanpaa of the Napa Valley Register who was at the game, was that Emery was down to only 12 healthy players. Tough going for the Spartans but hopefully they can rebound and field a team next week.

Bower here: Might as well add to this my thoughts of the night (or I should say last night since it is 3 a.m. Saturday right now).

Anyway, I was out at the Balboa-John F. Kennedy game. It wasn’t much of a contest as Kennedy owned the line all night on both sides of the ball. Titans running back Jerrell Walker was a pleasure to watch. He could be the best kept secret in the East Bay. He had 170 yards or so and scored three TDs. He sat out for most of the second half along with other starters on Kennedy’s squad. Not much else came out of this one. It was 20-0 at the half and never close.

Next week we will have more to say since there will be a full slate of games.