ANDY WILCOX
AMERICAN CANYON -- When you're playing a football team you've only known about for a week, you can't panic when they stop your off ense and show you how to score instead.
That's what visiting Lassen of Susanville did to grab the early momentum in last Saturday's Northern California 5-A football championship game at American Canyon.
"At that time, we knew it was just one drive. We had so many more drives to go, so in my mind I knew after one drive we had to learn to keep going on and on off of it," said Wolves quarterback Mason Harris. "We did an amazing job just learning from our mistakes super early in the game and just carrying it on throughout the fourth quarter. It was huge for us, each drive getting better and better."
Harris was at the center of it all. The senior was 12 of 16 passing for 216 yards and touchdowns of 44 yards to Abdul Kates, 25 yards to Webster Burks and 52 yards to Evan Paras, and ran for a game high 163 yards and two more scores, including an electrifying 89-yard sprint.
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It's hard to believe the Wolves would have won so big, 43-20, were it not for senior transfer Khairee Baker answering the Grizzlies first strike with a 90-yard kickoff return and kicker Edoardo Pelagatti added the go-ahead extra point.
"It was huge for us. It put all the confidence and momentum back on us," Harris said of the former Mission High star's tackle-breaking return. "It was ours to take after that. Just keep our foot on the gas, and that's what we continued to do. But we had no doubt in our mind, even when we were down, because that's what happened last week against Redwood. We knew we just needed to keep our heads up, just keep fighting."
And now American Canyon finds itself in the 5-A state title game at Long Beach City College, where the kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday. against Southern California champion Palmdale (10-5). The Falcons are ranked 321st in the state by MaxPreps, while the Wolves are at No. 187.
Harris, who had to sit out American Canyon's playoff opener against College Park due to concussion protocol, has shown no effects in the three games since. The 2023 Napa County football Player of the Year seemed to be peaking against Lassen (10-4).
"I just stuck with my teammates, had faith in them, and it just worked perfectly," Harris said. "Everybody did an excellent job -- the center, then other linemen, the running backs, the wide receivers, they all did their jobs to perfection.
"This is an amazing feeling. I don't know how many teams in California that are doing this, probably less than 30, and we're one of those teams that's doing it and it's a crazy feeling. I'm at a loss for words. We've had confidence ever since we beat College Park in the first round of playoffs. We just found our groove again and we've just been rolling, rolling rolling the whole playoffs, and I feel better than ever. Our chemistry has been off the charts these last few weeks and that has been huge for us."
They say you play how you practice, and Harris said the Wolves have felt relaxed but focused in practices.
"We still have a lot of fun because we know that's every important for us, to be loose at practice, but not too distracted," he said. "Just have a clear mind and go in there to work hour in and hour out. It's been big."
Kates had three catches for a team-high 64 yards.
"Your team depends on you, your coaches believe in you, so you gotta come out and make plays. That's what game-changers do," the senior said. "At some point, you've got to have a mindset to refuse to lose and that's what we had tonight. As soon as we get the film, we watch, we watch, we watch, we write scouting reports about the person who's guarding us or the player we're going up against. There's so much dedication and time that goes into it.
I've got to give it all to my coaches, man. They keep us on track, they keep us disciplined. We couldn't do it without them."
After past American Canyon teams lost three times in the section semifinals, this team was able to click under all of that pressure and get it done.
"We spend so much time together, it's a family," Kates explained. "It's not a brotherhood, it's not a team, it's not none of that. It's a family. We're together more than we're with our own regular families. We've got so much connection, so much chemistry with each other, everything kinda clicks together because we've been playing with each other for so long."
But they know the job's not done yet. Palmdale is led by prolific junior quarterback Joshua Suarez with 2,231 yards passing, completing 58% of his throws, with a whopping 40 touchdowns and just nine interceptions. He has three receivers with 775 or more yards and 11 touchdown catches or more apiece. The Falcons truly like going to the air. "We can't get complacent. We put our lives into it, so why not go all the way?" Kates said. "We had a game plan against Lassen. We knew that they were going to hand the ball off to No. 5 (Dathen Moore, 122 yards, two scores) and No. 0 (Dowan Stephens, 95 yards) all night. They are hell of players so we had to pick it up and make those tackles."
Baker was expecting the Grizzlies to kick off to fellow returner Burks,
"They would kick it to No. 3 pretty much or they'd just try to offside it. All I can say is when you kick it to No. 20, you might as well just get out of the way because you ain't catching No. 20," Baker said of his jersey number. "I'm sorry to say it, but I'm just quick like that.
"But I couldn't have done this, this journey I've taken, without the man above and I have one purpose: I promised my mom and everyone in my family that I'm gonna make it no matter what. If I gotta start from the bottom, I'm gonna work my way up to the top, no matter what. That's just the tough person I am, that's how my mama raised me. Ain't nothing else to it.
"The work ethic I put in for this sport, I never gave up on anything. I love this team to death. I came all the way from San Francisco, transferred from Mission High School and wanted to win, and that's exactly what I got. Now we're going to L.A. Not much to be said, you're going to see more of 20. Be on the lookout. No matter what, we're always going to have heart. We have heart for each other. This is a big family. It's bigger than just the program. Each one of us goes through the same thing. We have each other's back like some chains, like some steel chains, no matter what."
American Canyon's Caden James, a 5-foot-11, 200-pound junior center who also wrestles, said winning the battles up front got easier as the game went on.
"Our linemen, we stay in the weight room pretty heavy so it wasn't too much of an issue to push them around. It's just what we do," he said. "You could see all throughout the year. We're at like 4,500 rushing yards on the season now. We've got a pretty solid offensive line and we're going to be state champions next week. We didn't come this far just to come this far. We've got pretty high hopes we're gonna win next week."
Aleki Fale, a senior linebacker and guard, said the Wolves prayers are being answered this year.
"I just want to give thanks to God. We couldn't do this without Him," he said. "We don't gotta worry about No. 5 or No. 0 because we got God. Nothing can stop us. We just put our faith in God and He do all the work. We're just the vessel and he's the man up top. He's the reason why we're here today. All glory to God. We couldn't do it without our coach (Trevor Hudson), either.
"We've got some things to fix this week but I have faith in my team that we're going to stop that team and we're going to go for it and make history again."
Even fourth-year junior varsity head coach Marcellus Holmes likes the Wolves' chances.
"I predicted back in '21 that these guys were going to be play for a section title because we always have the talent," he said. "We just got to go to work. We just gotta go down there and handle business and bring it back home."
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