Confident Thunder bag a giant Grizzly

By all accounts, Friday's 28-14 win at Granite Bay High was the biggest win in the history of the Rocklin football program.The Thunder, who trailed 7-0 just a minute into the game after fumbling away the opening kickoff, dominated the Grizzlies from there on out. When it was all over, the Rocklin players were singing to the visiting fans and emotions were running wild. A Thunder football squad had never been so happy."We're proud of them, they played their hearts out," Rocklin coach Greg Benzel said. "We beat an incredible program and we're 2-0 and now we're in new territory. This is a new era and these guys are special I'm just in the moment right now."It was a completely different feeling on the other sideline. The Grizzlies were beaten soundly on their home field a rare occurrence."They outplayed us and outcoached us," said Granite Bay coach Ernie Cooper, whose Grizzlies beat Pitman of Turlock 40-39 in their opener. "We were not ready to play and that's my job. We weren't prepared 12-men-on-the-field penalty late in the game things like that. They are the better team."Rocklin senior quarterback Matt Anderson completed 4-of-10 passes for 78 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He also put his team up 21-14 with an athletic 3-yard touchdown run with one minute, 47 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Anderson followed up his diving score with a 2-point conversion completion to Dylan Lane."We were really confident going into the game because we worked really hard all week and watched a whole lot of film," Anderson said. "Last year we were a really young team and our chemistry was not as good. But this year the team has really, really bonded."Anderson then pointed out how strong the defense is and how the offense is contributing to that. Rocklin shut out Del Campo 10-0 in the season opener and held the Grizzlies in check. Granite Bay quarterback Ryan Woods was 8-14 for 70 yards and one interception while Rocky Russo led the Grizzlies with 82 yards rushing."We felt out defense could stop them," Anderson said. "Our defense is stepping up and making plays and our offense is keeping our defense off the field. That's something we didn't do last year."Perhaps the biggest defensive play of the night came from Rocklin senior defensive back David Akinnyi. With his team leading 13-7 in the final minute of the first half and the Grizzlies at Rocklin's 4-yard-line, the transfer from Texas intercepted a pass at the goal line. The play gave the Thunder all the momentum heading into the locker room. "It was surreal I didn't even know what was going on," Akinnyi said. "I just saw the ball in the air and didn't even see the quarterback throwing it. (After the interception) everyone was yelling and excited. I enjoy being on this team and I just like being around the guys and everyone."After Granite Bay capitalized on Rocklin's turnover on the opening kickoff with a touchdown run by Joe Stark, Rocklin got a break of its own. Granite Bay fumbled a punt at its own 17 and Rocklin junior running back Devin Dykstra tied the scored at seven with a two-yard run midway through the first quarter.Later in the quarter Rocklin junior Adam Brockman blocked a Granite Bay punt, giving his team possession at Granite Bay's 40. Anderson found an open Lane for a long touchdown pass on the next play to put the Thunder up 13-7 at 3:08 in the first quarter."Coach Benzel said 'we're going to take a shot'," Anderson said. "We were in playaction and because we had been running the ball so much, they really bit on the playaction."On the opening drive of the second half, the Grizzlies ran the ball eight times for 73 yards in less than four minutes. The drive culminated with an 8-yard touchdown run by Andrew Hornbruch to put Granite Bay up 14-13. The Thunder took back the lead with Anderson's touchdown run late in the third quarter and Dykstra's 3-yard touchdown run with four minutes left in the game set the final score.Dykstra led Rocklin's 164-yard rushing attack with 97 yards on 19 carries. Junior Cameron Thomits chipped in with 46 yards on 12 carries.Senior linebacker Tyler Kaushagen played a big part in two Granite Bay turnovers in the fourth quarter. He recovered a fumble by Devon Wylie with six minutes left in the quarter and forced Wylie to fumble the ball to a Rocklin teammate three minutes later. Rocklin's Brockman had a key sack in the fourth quarter to help put the game away. Rocklin junior Chase Baker had a couple sacks and applied heavy pressure on Woods throughout the game.The Thunder (2-0) will host a tough Laguna Creek team on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Junior Varsity Granite Bay 18,Rocklin 6The Thunder fell to 0-2 on the season although they did have an opportunity to beat the Grizzlies. Trailing 12-6, Rocklin, with the help of a long run Beau Bussani, had the ball down to Granite Bay's 1 with about six minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. The drive ended with an interception. The Grizzlies Aaron Burney tacked on a late touchdown, his second of the half, on an 80-yard run.Rocklin's Roman Campbell tied the game at six in the first half with a 10-yard touchdown reception from Kevin O'Brien.Bussani, who rushed for 125 yards in Rocklin's 7-6 opening loss to visiting Del Campo, had about 100 yards rushing against the Grizzlies. Rocklin's Ryan Eckert led the Thunder defensive effort, making several tackles behind the line of scrimmage."We're looking at continuing to run the football successfully," said Rocklin coach Jared Amalong, about the upcoming game against visiting Laguna Creek on Friday at 5:30 p.m. "We had a chance to win this game at the end and turned the ball over in the end zone."