50th Pig Bowl: Law Hogs beat Fire Dogs in Guns & Hoses charity football game in Sacramento

It wasn’t the best display of football with dropped passes, minimal yards rushing and a combined 13 punts, but style wasn’t the point here.

It was substance, and if the Pig Bowl has taught us anything over the decades, it’s that this game endures because it has deeper meaning than touchdown drives conducted by men in their 20s and 30s and graying grinders in their 40s and above.

The longest-running event of its kind in the country, Pig Bowl 50 was a rousing success Saturday afternoon at Hughes Stadium. The Law Hogs defeated the Fire Dogs 27-13 in the Guns & Hoses games for local charities in front of a crowd game officials estimated as close to 8,500.

The action was continuous in the VIP tents on the scoreboard side of the Sacramento City College campus, home of the first 25 Pig Bowls. Old-timers chowed down, gulped their beers and rehashed old Pig Bowl stories. Halftime included 50 Pig Bowl Hall of Fame inductees, and it was a big deal to every one of them, former players, ex-coaches waddling about with sore limbs and quick one-liners. Some of the best high school coaches in regional history who donated their time to coach in the games in past decades were honored, including Dave Hoskins, Steve Kenyon, Ed Lombardi, Max Miller and Bob Sandoval.

The first Pig Bowl in 1975 drew 19,500 at Hughes Stadium. The 1982 game featured 30,200 patrons who squeezed into the 23,000-seat venue and poured into the end zone seats brought in that day for the horseshoe venue. That remains the largest crowd to view a sporting event in Sacramento.

The game has lost some of its appeal in terms of crowds, but not in its value. Players compete to honor those they have lost in the line of duty while others work the event as volunteers to keep the game alive. That includes game director Cary Trzcinski.

A retired deputy from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, Trzcinski played in 13 Pig Bowls as a fullback and linebacker, and he remains the only one in the game’s history to have scored touchdowns on both sides of the ball. He was also inducted into the Pig Bowl Hall of Fame on Saturday and presented with a ring that rivals a Super Bowl piece.

“Awesome event, great day,” a beaming Trzcinski said. “This game means a lot to me and it means a lot to so many people. It’s our piece of history, and this is a big part of Sacramento.”

Trzcinski mentioned those who are gone but remain in spirit, including Vu Nguyen, a member of the Sheriff’s Office’s gang unit, who was shot and killed by a gang member in Sacramento in 2007.

“I do this because of Vu,” Trzcinski said. “I think of him all the time. We do this game to honor him and others we’ve lost and for their families. They’re not forgotten.”

Trzcinski said the event was a success because of the people behind it, which includes the tireless Jodi Eyerman. Her many Pig Bowl tasks include logistics, tickets, merchandise, social media and game-day operations. She went to bed at 3 a.m. Saturday and was up two hours later, bright-eyed and welcoming at the morning Pig Bowl breakfast. Eyerman’s husband, Joe, has played for the Law Hogs for years, and she toasted the day by wearing her favorite gold-sparkle boots.

“Had to,” she said before kickoff. “Big game.”

In the breakfast that connected the past generation Pig Bowl participants to the current era, someone checked out the muscle-bound Fire Dogs team and joked, “Glad to see we’re still hiring by the pound.”

The Law also looked the part of a motivated outfit, and both rosters included men whose best football days were long ago. But the chance to band together and play a game like this was too good to pass up. Both rosters had 90 players, a sign that player interest remains. A lot of them will spend the rest of the weekend sore but content.

Pig Bowl MVP honors

Jace Slone earned one of the game MVP honors for the Law. He hit Terrence McDonald for a 15-yard touchdown for the final score, which came just over a minute into the fourth quarter. Slone’s young son wore a sweat top that read “Pig Bowl 50” and he handled the glass MVP trophy with the pride of a boy carrying a puppy.

Two Law defensive backs earned MVP honors in Joshua Gurnaby, who made tackles all over the sparkling turf, and Dante Gunther, who returned a fumble 52 yards for a touchdown and a 20-13 Law lead with 3:31 left in the third.

Andrew Bettencourt hit Michael Booth for a 25-yard touchdown pass on the Law’s opening drive, and Scott Brown had field goals of 25 and 36 yards for a 13-7 Law lead at the half. The Fire Dogs scored on a 41-yard touchdown from Niko Fortino to Tim Crenshaw to tie it 7-7, and Gabe Taylor ran it in from 25 yards out to tie it 13-13.

Pig Bowl future

It was a grand exit for Law coach Mike Morris, a fixture in regional coaching from his past stint as head coach at Rio Linda High School and current run as assistant coach at American River College. He coached his 13th and final Pig Bowl, bowing out with a 9-3 record in the series. And, yes, they all keep score in this game, though no one has to be reminded about perspective.

This was a football game, not a call to put out a fire or to investigate a homicide.

“We talk about that all the time,” Morris said of the big-picture theme of the game’s importance. “It’s not about any one of us. It’s about the event, what it means to the people involved and to Sacramento. But, yeah, we want to beat them.”

Trzcinski said the game will be back next year. He wants to end speculation that the game is on its last legs. Trzcinski and Morris said both rosters have new blood, young legs, and that spirit alone should lead to more Pig Bowls.

“I think the future of the game looks great,” Morris said.