Oak Ridge holds off Grant in fight to the finish between Sacramento-area football powers
Two high school heavyweights with championship pedigrees met head-on Friday night in El Dorado Hills in a clash that figured to be a fight to the finish.
An overflow crowd packed the stadium to witness a battle between two of top team’s in The Sacramento Bee’s rankings. Grant led at the half but trailed late.
In the closing seconds, after a furious rally, the Pacers fired two deep balls into the end zone on the final plays. They just missed, allowing No. 3 Oak Ridge to hold off the No. 2 Pacers 21-18 in a nonleague affair that surely will benefit both programs from here on out.
Oak Ridge (2-0) found out it has championship grit, hanging in there despite being down some key players, including star linebacker Gavin Molloy, who missed the final quarter with a strained knee. Grant (1-1) learned the hard way that experience matters, and that quite often in prep sports, the group with more veterans finds a way to hold on.
Still, the Pacers know they certainly have a shot to make another run as defending CIF state Division III-AA champions with a young team that is growing by the week.
“Our guys didn’t quit,” said an elated if not exhausted Oak Ridge coach Casey Taylor, who applauded his group for its effort against such a storied program. “It was two great teams banging into each other. We had a great third quarter, and our defense played lights out. We showed a lot. We kept going because we knew it’d take all 48 minutes to beat those guys. They’re really good.”
Wayshawn Parker certainly qualifies as really good, if not better. The senior running back for Grant, who was a Bee All-Metro player at Elk Grove last season, took off for a 65-yard touchdown burst to open the scoring. He chugged and sprinted for 159 yards on 12 first-half carries. But he, too, was slowed a bit in the second half, banged up and zeroed in on before finishing with 17 carries for 179 yards.
He wasn’t the only one. Players from both teams were laboring down the stretch, be it from crushing hits or fatigue.
Luke Alexander pushed the Pacers up 12-0 with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Jones with 6:28 to go in the half. The Pacers, for all of their firepower, did not make good on any touchdown conversions, but that is a correctable issue, coach Carl Reed said afterward.
Grant held Oak Ridge just short of the goal line as time expired in the first half, but Oak Ridge found new life in the third quarter, scoring three successive touchdowns and recording a safety to take a 21-12 lead despite also misseing some conversions.
Jasen Womack, just a sophomore, rushed for 107 yards for Oak Ridge, but it was his option pass to 6-foot-7 national tight end recruit Kaleb Edwards that was the game’s biggest play, a 25-yarder for a 19-12 lead. It’s a play the Trojans have worked on in practice, and it paid off beautifully.
Womak also rushed for a score. Edwards caught four passes from Joaquin Graves-Mercado or Womack for 123 yards.
“He threw a nice pass,” Edwards said of Womack. “He played some quarterback as a freshman, and that swung the momentum. It was a great challenge playing Grant, a lot of fun.”
Edwards looks the part of a wow prospect with his size, ability to run and catch, and his grades. He is also all manners after games. His phone has blown up with recruiting feelers, but he has a singular focus of the next game.
Said Taylor of his multi-sport star with great grades to boot: “He’s a big-time guy.”
Taylor told his team earlier this week about Grant, its football legacy, the eight Sac-Joaquin Section championships, the NFL guys to come out of the program, including Shaq Thompson, a first-round pick out of Washington by the Carolina Panthers in 2015 and still a star for that NFL club at linebacker.
Oak Ridge has some gloss to its game, too. The Trojans won a Division I section championship in 2019 and they have some NFL products of their own, including former receiver Austin Collie, the Bee Player of the 2000s.
The Pacers on Friday were up, then down, then nearly really up had they pulled it off. Grant coaches told their guys that losses like this sting, and should sting, but the good teams respond. They vow to respond. Taylor also challenged his team, saying this effort doesn’t hold up if the team suddenly loses momentum. He doubts that will happen.
“Our youth popped out today,” said Reed, the Grant coach. “We played a perennial power and battled to the end. You saw two of the top three teams in the Sacramento area play, and we had a shot. We’ll be OK.”
