How El Cerrito rallied in the fourth quarter and won NCS Division II title: “We were not going to give up on this game”
NCS Division II football championship: Jayvon Bolds scores the game-winning touchdown to give El Cerrito the section championship
HILL OF PLEASURE – El Cerrito coach Jacob Rincon said the Gauchos have had rivalries with North Bay schools for as long as he can remember, developing during various North Coast Section playoffs. There were probably none more heated than the current rivalry with Windsor.
For the third consecutive season, the Gauchos and Jaguars met in the NCS playoffs on Friday night, and it was another nail-biter that wasn’t decided until the final minutes.
El Cerrito won the Division II championship game at Diablo Valley College 34-31 after recovering a fumble at its own 21-yard line with 1:49 remaining in the game, then scoring the winning touchdown 41 seconds later on a fly-sweep from the Windsor 15, with quarterback Michael Vanhook flipping the ball to Jayvon Bolds, who ran it into the end zone.
“They just told me to get the ball and try to get into the end zone,” Bolds told reporters. “I did my job.”
El Cerrito (12-1) won back-to-back NCS championships with the winning score. Last year, the Gauchos defeated Windsor 34-27 after a furious second-half comeback. This season, both schools were promoted to Division II. El Cerrito was seeded first in the playoffs, while Windsor was seeded second.
El Cerrito will find out who it will play in the CIF NorCals next weekend on Sunday. If they win that game, they will advance to the CIF state championship game. Windsor finishes the season with a record of 10-2-1.
The game-winning fly-sweep wasn’t El Cerrito’s first use of the play on Friday night. Earlier in the game, the Gauchos attempted one, but the ball was fumbled and Windsor recovered. El Cerrito had only one turnover in the game. Windsor fumbled the ball five times, three of which were interceptions.
Gary Youngblood, a sophomore, had two of the Gauchos’ interceptions. His first pick came just over a minute into the game, and he raced 31 yards to put the Gauchos up 6-0. He threw his second interception with the clock winding down in the first half, but there was still time for Vanhook to finish a six-play, 63-yard drive with a 9-yard touchdown run, giving El Cerrito a 21-17 lead at the half. The decisive play was Micah Avery’s 42-yard run to the Windsor 14.
In the first half, Youngblood also caught a 68-yard touchdown pass from Vanhook.
The game swung back and forth. Windsor scored the next 17 points after Youngblood’s first pick put them up 6-0. El Cerrito, on the other hand, scored twice in the final 5:05 of the second quarter to take a four-point lead into halftime.
Windsor rallied with touchdowns on its first two possessions of the third quarter to take a 31-21 lead. Windsor quarterback Judson Anderson scored his third and fourth touchdowns of the game. Hayden Anderson, Anderson’s younger brother, caught three touchdown passes. The Jaguars passed for nearly 400 yards but were unable to gain any ground against El Cerrito’s defense, finishing with less than 50 yards.
The Gauchos took control of the game in the fourth quarter, just as they did in an NCS playoff two years ago. El Cerrito fell a point short in the 2021 game, losing 33-32. This year was unique.
El Cerrito cut the score to 31-28 with 8:05 remaining on a 1-yard run by Vanhook, but the Gauchos got the break they needed.
After a 14-yard run to the Gauchos’ 21, Judson Anderson fumbled, and the El Cerrito defense pounced.
Vanhook threw a 17-yard pass to Zion Shelton following an El Cerrito penalty. After an incomplete pass and another Gauchos penalty, Washington State commit Kamani Jackson broke free for a 26-yard run. After the run, a Windsor penalty added 15 yards, putting El Cerrito deep in Jaguars territory.
Micah Avery ran 8 yards to the 15, then Vanhook and Bolds connected for the final 15 yards. Avery rushed for 144 yards on 18 attempts.
“We were not going to give up on this game,” Avery said, referring to the Gauchos’ 10-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter. “The defense made a big stop, then the offense got the ball into the end zone.”
Rincon stated that his team appeared to be discouraged at one point in the fourth quarter. He called a timeout and gathered his team. “I told them to keep having faith, the game ain’t over.”
El Cerrito’s fourth turnover of the night came on the next play, and the game-winning drive began.
