By Bill Bray
FREMONT – Don Paul stadium did not quite have the overflowing crowd it had a week ago to honor Charles Woodson, but it certainly had the overflowing scoreboard in favor of Fremont Ross 48-14.
The sensational offense and tremendous defense Ross have displayed the last three weeks has led the Little Giants to their first 4-0 start since 2006.
This was the 30th meeting between the two schools that dates to 1982. Ross holds a commanding 22-8 series lead. Fremont Ross’ biggest win over Clay came in 1994 when the Little Giants, behind the seven-touchdown performance by Charles Woodson, gave Ross a 72-0 win.
Though the score was not quite as lopsided as that night, the performance by Kaden “The Arm” Holmes was on par with Woodson’s display. The junior signal caller hurled six touchdown passes. He finished the game with 18 completions on 23 attempts for 274 yards and the six scores.
The receiver getting most of Holmes’ attention was junior Bryson Hammer who hauled in eight catches for 144 yards and two scores.
The touchdown parade began with 8:44 remaining in the opening quarter when Holmes found Anthony Vann for a one-yard touchdown pass. The hits, they just kept on coming. With 2:55 left in the first, Holmes again threw a short pass to Kalijah Alejandro. Silver was good on his first two attempts and Ross held a 14-0 lead to end the opening stanza.
The Little Giants, while holding the Eagles to one first down in the first half of play, erupted with 34 points scored in the second quarter. Four of the five Ross scores came from the arm of Holmes. Joining the hit parade was Adam Hrynciw who gathered in two of the Holmes aerials. One from 29 yards at the 11:43 mark and the other from 24 yards out with 10:39 left in the first half. Bryson Hammer added two more touchdown catches to the stat sheet for Ross. His first reception was good for 22 yards and his second scoring catch covered 11 yards. The only score for Ross not involving Holmes, was on an 11-yard touchdown run by Malakhi Griffin at the 9:10 mark of the second quarter. Johan Silver made six of seven extra points and the half ended with Ross up 48-0.
With wholesale changes for Ross in the second half, Oregon Clay got on the board. The Eagles first score came when Donovan Coughlin picked up a Griffin fumble at the 10:35 mark of the third quarter and galloped 45 yards for the score.
Clay’s second “gimme” touchdown came with 9:11 left in the game with a two-yard run from Logan Werner. Clay’s Aiden Dickens made both PAT kicks to wrap up the scoring.
The Little Giant defense was stellar once again. Oregon Clay was held to 150 total yards of offense. 47 yards through the air and 103 yards on the ground. Fremont’s London Johnson and Jabari Heidelburg were bottling up Clay’s running game all night and linebackers Dean Hetrick and Brayden Guhn had another solid performance for the Ross defense.
