Football: Dublin Defense Struggles in Loss to Livermore

Livermore 40, Dublin 21

The Star: Livermore junior running back Demariay Drew scored five touchdowns, three rushing, one receiving and one on a kickoff return.

The Turning Point: On the final play of the first half, Drew scored on a 37-yard pass from Gary Chapeta to give the Cowboys their first lead. It was part of a string of 34 consecutive points rung up by Livermore, all in the second and third quarters.

The Quote: "We have to really look at ourselves and see what we can do to shore up the defense. It is unacceptable to give up six and seven touchdowns each and every game. It's just unacceptable." — Dublin coach Casey Moreno.

What's Next: Dublin plays host to Sonoma Valley Friday at 7 p.m. in its final tuneup before launching Diablo Foothill Athletic League play.

Bottom Line: The Gaels were no match for the quickness and determination of the hard-running Drew, who totaled 359 yards of total offense as a runner, receiver and returner.

——————————

The Dublin High Gaels got a pretty clear picture of what they would be up against the first time Demariay Drew touched the football Friday night.

It was not going to be a pretty picture — not after Drew brought back Dublin's kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown, 16 seconds after Dublin had scored in the game's first series to take a 7-0 lead.

By the time Livermore's 5-11, 170-pound running back was done, he was the proud owner of a five touchdown night that involved just about every possible offensive means of contribution.

Drew scored on running plays of 71, 51 and 26 yards and caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Gary Chapeta in addition to his kick return.

Drew's talents were clearly in evidence, but what irked Dublin coach Casey Moreno most of all was how he did it.

He ran through arm tackles repeatedly. He broke three tackles on the kickoff return, ran through three more tackles without losing a bit of speed on the 26-yard touchdown run and was barely slowed on his 51-yard scoring run.

"We didn't tackle at all, the whole game long," Moreno said. "It started off with that kickoff. It was a sign of what was to be. We didn't have one kid that wanted to get out there and tackle."

Moreno's frustration was such that after the game he held a closed door meeting with his players that lasted 25 minutes. The biggest disappointment was that, tactically, the Gaels had the Cowboys right where they wanted them.

"Let's call it what it is," Moreno said. "They (the Cowboys) wanted to run the option last week and they ran it (in a 20-13 win over Liberty). They could not run the option against us. They could not run the dive and the dive option. We took that away from them (early). But we forced them to go to something else and we couldn't tackle."

Drew was that "something else."

The loss left Dublin with the dubious distinction of having allowed 40 or more points in each of its three games this year, all of them losses.

"We just haven't played very good defense, really, the last four years," Moreno said. "We don't have a nasty attitude. Until we get sick and tired of being peoples' doormats, it's not going to change."

The Gaels' offense, which sparkled a week earlier in another defensive debacle, a 44-36 loss at the hands of Galt, looked fit and capable, scoring 14 points in the first quarter and 7 more in the fourth.

Quarterback Edward Achziger, who had put together two nondescript games the first two weeks of the season, came alive in a big way, hitting wideout Brandon Wynne 11 times for 104 yards. He threw scoring passes to Jabari Davis for six yards and Jaylen Paulding for three.

Achziger completed his first seven passes of the game for 81 yards and completed 22 of 39 passes for 224 yards. He also delivered three interceptions, two of them on consecutive fourth-quarter possessions with the Gaels frantically trying to erase a 19-point deficit.

All told, Dublin put together 359 yards in total offense. It led 14-6, but was undone by two Cowboys' touchdowns in the final 1:27 of the first half, the first a 26-yard pitchout run, the second Drew's 37-yard touchdown reception.

Until then, Livermore had been the ones suffering the frustration. Dublin had scored on each of its first two possessions, sandwiched around Drew's kickoff return the first time the Cowboys touched the ball on offense. They didn't get another snap on offense until just two minutes remained in the first quarter.

But in the end, it boiled down to defense, and not necessarily a physical issue. Moreno said his team is built around a bend-don't-break philosophy that will not work without good tacklers.

"There are certain guys we have on this team right now we can't afford to play on defense because they're not good tacklers," Moreno said. "We're not a very big team in the first place. But Livermore was not physically overpowering. They just tackled better than us. I didn't think they blocked especially well. I think (Drew) made stuff out of nothing. If you don't tackle, you make everybody around you look great."

——————————

Livermore 40, Dublin 21

Dublin 14 0 0 7 — 21

Livermore 6 13 21 0— 40

Scoring summary:

 9:37 1st  D – Rudolph 2 run (Marshall kick)

 9:21 1st  L – Drew 95 kickoff return (kick failed)

 2:30 1st  D – Davis 6 pass from Achziger (Marshall kick)

 1:27 2nd  L – Drew 26 run (pass failed)

 0:00 2nd  L – Drew 37 pass from Chapeta (Texeira kick)

 7:55 3rd    L – Texeira 10 run (Texeira kick)

 6:14 3rd  L – Drew 51 run (Texeira kick)

 2:50 3rd  L – Drew 71 run (Texeira kick)

10:35 4th D – Paulding 3 pass from Achziger

Individual statistics

Rushing (car-yards): D – Rudolph 14-49, Thomas 7-48, Achziger 3-13, Leung 7-2, Elias 2-3, Revelez 1-3, Paulding 1-3. Totals: 35-121. L – Drew 11-215, Chapeta 10-35, Andrade 8-4, Texeira 4-13, Montana 2-8, Hall 1-1, Williams 1-(minus) 1, Kinnard 1-(minus) 4. Totals: 38-273.

Passing (comp-att-yards-int): D – Achziger 22-39 224-3, Elias 1-2-14-0. L – Chapeta 5-9-140-0.

Receiving (rec-yards): D – Wynne 11-104, Pauling 5-52, Thomas 2-35, Owens 2-16, Payendah 1-14, Davis 1-6, Leung 1-5. L – Drew 2-49, Kissling 1-33, Brasher 1-31, Wood 1-27.

Team offense (rushing-passing-total)

Dublin -- 121-238-359

Livermore – 273-140-413

Fumbles/lost: D 0-0, L 2-2

Records: Dublin 0-3, Livermore 2-0

—————————

Follow Patch Sports East Bay on Twitter

—————————

More Patch East Bay Football Coverage

Friday, Sept. 18

 — By Adam Berke

 — By Mustafa Shaikh

 — By Jason Alpert

 — By Peter Fournier

 — By Joey Brownlee

 — By Jordan Conn

 — By Jim Mannion

 — By Steve R. Waterhouse

 — By Eric Gilmore

 — By Kyle Bonagura

 — By Richard Paolinelli

 — By Kyle Yamamoto

 — By Jeff Weisinger

 — By Mitch Stephens

 — By Patrick Creaven