Times-Herald sports staff/ Vallejo Times Herald

The Benicia High School football team dropped its first game of the season, losing a 29-28 heartbreaker at
Oakland Tech on Friday.
The Panthers (4-1) led 28-21 with 3:44 left but Oakland Tech scored in the waning minutes when quarterback Josh
Lewis scrambled and scored from 16 yards out with 1:36 left. Then Tech went for two, as Noah Suszckiewicz
dived across the pylon.
Panthers quarterback Ryan Bohnet was picked off on the ensuing drive.
Bohnet threw for three touchdowns and was intercepted twice. He tossed an 18-yard score to Drae Randolph in the
first half and connected with John Lewis III on a 47-yarder and James Hyde Jr. on an 11-yarder.
Anthony Guidry scored on a 52-yard run for Benicia, which begins Solano County Athletic Conference play next week against Fairfield.

Oakland Tech scored on its first possession on 1-yard run by junior quarterback James Lewis, one of his three scoring runs as the host Bulldogs beat the Spartans in a nonleague game. Lamar Davis scored on a 51-yard run on Oakland Tech’s second possession.

W, 14-0 at Castlemont HS

L, 21-0 at Oakland Tech

L, 22-16 at Oakland Tech

The host Bulldogs got 141 yards and a touchdown from Lennard Davis IV and held off the Wildcats (0-9, 0-4). Davis gave Tech a 14-6 lead with a 2-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.

Oakland responded two plays later when Virgil Bridges hit Dartagnon McGlothen deep over the middle for a 57-yard touchdown pass. That made the score 14-12 at halftime.

Tech marched 53 yards on eight plays for a touchdown to open the second half. Greg Pierson hit Keith Lewis for a 9-yard score.

Bridges scored on a 2-yard keeper in the fourth to cut the lead to 22-18. He finished 13 of 25 passing for 206 yards and two touchdowns.

– Damin Esper, correspondent

The Football practice and study hall schedule for the remainder of the school year is as follows:

Varsity

Mandatory Study Hall:  3:30 – 5:30, Library

Practice:  5:30 – 8:00

Junior Varsity

Practice:  4:00 – 6:00

There is a MANDATORY meeting tomorrow night, Wednesday August 25th, for parents of 2010 Football student-athletes. The meeting will take place at 6pm in the Boys Gymnasium.

Early reports are that the JV team is very short on players. If your 9th or 10th grade son has ever considered playing football, even with little or no experience, you may want to consider coming to the meeting tomorrow night to see if it might be a good fit.

Tailback Darren Duong ran for3 touchdowns and caught another as the Bulldogs cruised to a 41-20 victory over Balboa in their season-opener at Oakland Tech.  Duong finished with 133 yards rushing on the night.

Oakland Tech 41, Balboa 20

Tech       14       0       13       14–       41

Balboa       6       6       0       8–       20

OT — Duong 45 run (kick failed)

B — Pulsian 86 kick return (pass fail)

OT — Duong 20 run (Pierson pass to Bagley)

B — Warren 32 run (pass fail)

OT — Duong 6 run (run fail)

OT — Duong 64 pass from Pierson (Southworth kick)

OT — Williams INT (Southworth kick)

B — Warren 35 run (Apilakvanichakit run)

OT — Gates 18 run (Southworth kick)

Statistics

Rushing:OT — Duong 16-133, Fudge 20-110, Gates 1-18, Williams 1-3, Pierson 3-(-11). Totals: 41-253. B — Warren 8-78, Pulsian 2-8, Apilakvanichakit 8-(-41). Totals: 18-45.

Passing: OT — Pierson 5-13-3 153. B — Apilakvanichakit 5-23-1 46.

Receiving: OT — Duong 3-91, Bagley 1-39, Otero 1-23. B — Pulsian 3-10, Musallam 2-36.

Fumbles/lost: OT — 2/1. B — 2/0.

Records: Oakland Tech 1-0, Balboa 0-2.

2010 Cream of the Crop: Best College Football Recruits in East Bay, San Mateo.

See article by Ben Enos in today’s Oakland Tribune.
Three Bulldogs are in the top 20.
Fred Thompson #2
Ryan Smith-Murphy #6, and
DiAndre Campbell #11

Both Thompson (#73) and Murphy (#85) also appeared in a separate listing of the top 100 recruits in California.

Congratulations to everyone.

Fremont High takes Silver Bowl title over Oakland Tech

Fremont High’s Sione Tupouata proved in Friday’s Silver Bowl that he was a worthy recipient of the Oakland Athletic League’s Most Valuable Player award.

The 6-foot-4, 250-pound Tupouata ran for a career-high 296 yards and two touchdowns and spearheaded a defensive effort that produced an 18-6 win over Oakland Tech at Laney College to give the Tigers their first Silver Bowl title in school history.

“I was having a great time,” said Tupouata, a senior running back/defensive end. “The best time of my life.”

Fremont (5-7) completes two transformations in winning the Oakland Section title, rebounding from an 0-6 start to this season and also finishing what it started last year, when it reached the Silver Bowl after a 1-9 season in 2007.

More on page 360

Oakland Tech Bulldozes McClymonds

Tech dominated Mack in today’s 1 vs 4 OAL playoff, winning 28-0 at Tech.  The Bulldogs move on to play Fremont in the OAL Championship game, the Lou Jones Silver Bowl, at Laney College next week.

This one was never really in doubt, although Tech turned the ball over several times early in the game. The Bulldogs defense was dominant from the first McClymonds series, and the first few minutes set the tone for the game. After a long gain on the first play from scrimmage, Tech fumbled the ball away on their own 35. The defense then forced Mack to turn the ball over on downs. Ryan Smith-Murphy broke through during the next series, for a long TD run to get the scoring started.

More on page 294

Bulldogs (finally) Roar Past McClymonds

This was a game of touchdown plays called back by officials. Tech had two in their first series of downs in the game. After a dominant first quarter, it took Tech until the last 6 minutes to really get their game going again. The Bulldogs went into half-time clinging to a 7-6 lead, with McClymonds scoring shortly before the break.

Early in the second half, one of the few poor series by the Tech defense allowed McClymonds to stroll to a 12-7 advantage. Tech regained the lead on a strong drive late in the third quarter, capping it with a jump-ball to Diandre Campbell in the right corner of the end zone, on 4th down at the Warriors 15.

Early in the fourth period, with Tech leading 14-12, McClymonds had a chance to take the lead, but self-destructed. A punt block by Eddie Heard gave the Warriors possession on the Tech 10. A run by Ernest Marshal brought the ball to the 1, but was called back by a holding penalty. Back-to-back false start penalties pushed the ball back to the 30. On fourth-and-goal from the 30, quarterback Robert Brigham found Heard for an apparent touchdown. But another yellow flag, this time a holding call, brought the play back. Eventually McClymonds was forced into a short punt on 4th and 45 (!), and the Bulldogs took over, needing to get some first downs to make this game their own.

More on page 273

Tech JV Football Ends OAL 5-0

The OT JV football squad completed their year with a 5-0 mark in the OAL, and were 6-4 overall. Their OAL record included shutouts at Oakland High and Castlemont, and forfeits by Fremont and Skyline. It took until the last few minutes of today’s finale at McClymonds before the JV Bulldogs gave up any points in OAL play, finally prevailing 28-6.

Oakland Tech Puts Itself into Mix for OAL Title

Oakland Tech High denied Castlemont a chance to clinch the Oakland Athletic League regular season title on Nov. 7. In the process, the Bulldogs put themselves in position to earn the crown.

Tech’s 26-20 win over the defending Silver Bowl champions left both teams tied for first place and gave the Bulldogs an opportunity to clinch the top seed in the OAL playoffs with a win Saturday at McClymonds.

“This is a real big win,” Tech two-way lineman Fred Thompson said. “We practiced hard all week and trusted our coaching staff.”

Castlemont (4-4, 3-1 OAL) could still earn at least a share of the title with a win Saturday over rival Fremont. Castlemont can earn the top seed if Tech (7-2, 3-1) loses to McClymonds (5-4, 2-2).
More on page 254

Oakland Tech 42, Skyline 26

Ryan Murphy might have had his problems, but the Bulldogs’ senior running back made plays when it mattered in an Oakland Athletic League win over the visiting Titans. Murphy scored four touchdowns, two of them on kickoff returns to overcome early fumble problems.

“You have to have short term memory in football,” Murphy said. “You have to forget the bad plays and come back with a big one. My teammates stayed by my side and even though I fumbled a few times they kept telling me it was okay.”

Turnovers helped give Skyline an early 12-0 lead, but Murphy returned a kick 83 yards for a score to get the Bulldogs rolling.

Oakland Tech (6-2, 2-1 OAL) scored 28 unanswered points to lead 28-12 at halftime. Even when the Titans (2-6, 1-2) cut the lead to 28-18, Murphy returned the ensuing kickoff 82 yards for a score. He also scored on runs of 19 and 9 yards while rushing for 117 yards.

“This was a must win for us,” Murphy said. “Last week we came out flat and it left a bad taste in our mouth.”

Skyline had receiving touchdowns of 49 and 11 yards by Darquis Rucker, and a 13-yard rushing and a 29-yard receiving touchdown by Ryan Norris.

Jake Southworth stretched his ongoing season streak of successful PAT’s to 20, validating the addition of the kicking game to Tech’s arsenal this year.

By Matt Smith
CC Times, 10/30/2009

Fremont 28, Oakland Tech 7

Tigers coach Isamu Falevai didn’t expect his team to be demoralized despite its winless record coming into Friday’s game against Oakland Athletic League favorite Oakland Tech. What Fremont did do was put together a commanding performance on both offense and defense to upset the Bulldogs on Tech’s homecoming afternoon.

The Tigers (1-6, 1-1 OAL), who suffered through a dismal preseason and a loss to Skyline in the league opener, returned several key starters from academic ineligibility.”We got our guys back,” said Falevai. “Now we don’t have people playing out of position or teams taking advantage of our lack of experience and fatigue with limited players.”

After a muffed punt by Oakland Tech gave the Tigers the ball at the Bulldogs’ 36, Sione Tupouata broke three tackles to put Fremont up 7-0 in the second quarter. Tupouata finished with 166 yards and two touchdowns.

The Bulldogs (5-2, 1-1) later recovered a Tupouata fumble at their own 13-yard line. But on the ensuing play, Tigers’ lineman Masai Fonua stepped in front of a Gregory Pierson screen pass and rumbled 7 yards to put Fremont ahead 14-0. Tupouata later peeled off a 56-yard touchdown run to give the Tigers a 22-0 lead late in third quarter.

By Allen Gordon
CC Times, 10/23/2009

Oakland Tech 21, Oakland High 0

Bragging rights are huge in Oakland Athletic League football. Oakland Tech High spent the past year listening to Oakland players and fans yak about last season’s 19-16 league win by the Wildcats, a victory they pulled out with two touchdowns in the final two minutes.

Well, the shoe’s on the other foot today.

Senior running back Ryan Murphy — who went to Oakland as a sophomore — rushed for a game-high 225 yards and three touchdowns while the Bulldogs’ defense shut down host Oakland’s decimated offense in a 21-0 victory Friday afternoon in the OAL opener for both teams.

“We got tired of them talking about last year,” said Tech coach Delton Edwards, whose team improved to 5-1 overall. “We wanted to make sure we whupped ‘em today. We held a grudge all year and it was good to get it off our chests.”

More on page 188

Pinole Valley 14, Oakland Tech 12

The visiting Spartans defense held the Bulldogs (2-1) in Pinole Valley territory three times in the fourth quarter, including recovering a fumble at the Pinole Valley 40 with 55 seconds remaining.

The Tech defense held Pinole Valley (3-0) to 66 yards of total offense. The Spartans’ Donovan Henderson had an 83-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the second quarter, and with the point- after kick, Pinole Valley held a 14-6 lead.

By Tony Gonsalez
Oakland Tribune
09/26/2009

Oakland Tech 46, American 13

The Bulldogs got huge games from running back Ryan Murphy and receiver Diandre Campbell.

The duo combined for several highlight-reel plays in Oakland Tech’s nonleague victory over visiting American.

Murphy had 19 carries for 261 yards and four touchdowns. He scored on runs of 74, 69 and 49 yards. Campbell had three catches for 127 yards and scored on touchdown receptions of 84 and 14 yards. The Bulldogs led 21-7 at halftime.

Oakland Tech 72, Mission-S.F. 6

The visiting Bulldogs (1-0) got 174 yards and three touchdowns rushing from Ryan Murphy, three touchdown passes by sophomore quarterback Gregory Pierson and an interception return for a touchdown by Edgar Gillies Jr. to rout the Bears (0-2) at Kezar Stadium.

Mission scored the game’s first touchdown when Dewayne Davis connected with James Amerson Jr. on a 25-yard pass one play after Murphy fumbled on the game’s first play from scrimmage. From then on, it was all Oakland Tech. The Bulldogs drove down the field on the next drive, scoring when Pierson hit DeAndre Campbell from 17 yards out.

A short punt from the Mission end zone set up Oakland Tech at the Bears 18. Pierson again cashed it in, this time with a 10-yard pass to Daron Duong.

More on page 140

Oakland Tech 26, Ygnacio Valley 13

Oakland Tech High knocked off an unbeaten squad for the second straight week, beating visiting Ygnacio Valley 26-13 on Oct. 9 in both teams’ final nonleague tuneup.

“This gives us confidence going into (Oakland Athletic League) play,” Tech coach Delton Edwards said. “It’s going to be a battle.”

The Bulldogs (4-1) open OAL play today when they face Oakland (2-2-1) at 3:30 p.m.

Tech’s combination of Ryan Murphy and DiAndre Campbell did a little of everything to help beat the Warriors, at the time ranked No. 15 in the Bay Area News Group East Bay poll. The duo also had their hands all over an Oct. 2 win over then 3-0 Mt. Diablo.

In this game, both two-way stars had interceptions. Campbell also returned a fumble for a score and Murphy threw a two touchdowns on halfback option passes — including one to Campbell.

More on page 159

Oakland Tech 33,  Mt. Diablo 16

Oakland Tech High running back Ryan Murphy laid most of the groundwork for a 33-16 win Oct. 2 at Mt. Diablo, but it was DiAndre Campbell who delivered the game’s biggest blow.

With the Bulldogs leading 20-10 with just under 30 seconds left in the first half, Gregory Pierson flipped a 15-yard pass to the corner of the end zone. Campbell, who’s bound for Washington next season, pulled down the jump-ball for a touchdown, giving Oakland Tech an insurmountable 17-point lead at halftime en route to the win.

Oakland Tech (3-1) scored first on a 6-yard run by Daron Duong, but Mt. Diablo (4-1) answered quickly, running off a 15-play, 63-yard drive that culminated in a 1-yard plunge by Ethan Morrow.

More on page 155

The JV Football team started the season with a solid 36-0 win over Mission High, playing in the fog at SF School of the Arts (the old McAteer High School campus).  The game was at 11 am on Saturday 09/12/09.

The Bulldogs rumbled to a 14-0 half-time lead, with two rushing TD’s by Evan Williams, and one two point conversion.  The teams battled to a scoreless third period, but Tech was well-placed to score on the first play of the fourth quarter, a fine run around the end by Josh (#7).  The Bulldogs scored twice more, an interception run back for a TD, and a good passing play, with two two-point conversions run in by #23, to provide the final winning margin.