Timberwolves quietly handle Raiders, 20-7

For the second straight week, the offense for Woodcreek's varsity football team struggled a bit. After only scoring three touchdowns in a 24-7 win against Ponderosa last week, the Timberwolves only managed two offensive touchdowns in a 20-7 win against Rio Americano. Woodcreek, however, is 2-0 in the Capital Valley Conference and are 5-0 overall and still undefeated with what appears to be the league championship game coming on Oct. 17 at home against Inderkum. "We played better a lot better on special teams this week," said Woodcreek coach Kyle Stowers, who has emphasized improving the team's special teams play the last two weeks. "Our defense also played well. Rio Americano did not have many yards offensively and scored their only touchdown in the fourth quarter, which made the final score seem closer than it was. Besides that, I think our defense had 40 to 50 penalty yards on that drive." The team's special teams even got a score against the Raiders. Late in the second quarter, the Raiders attempted a punt, but the snap sailed over the punter's head into the end zone where Jacob Young fell on the ball for a Woodcreek touchdown. "We also had some standouts on defense," Stowers said. "Adrian Mendoza, a senior, got a start at inside linebacker for us. I can't say enough good things about Adrian Mendoza. He stepped in and did a great job for us on late notice. "Trace Murchison, as good as he's been on offense for us, probably played his best defensive game for us on Friday." So Woodcreek's defense and special teams played well, but now on to the offense. The team had decent statistics. Quarterback Joey Melendez completed 12-of-14 passes for 169 yards and two touchdowns and the team rushed for 161 yards and averaged 4.5 yards per carry, but still they only managed two touchdowns passes from Melendez to Murchison. "We were just a bit inconsistent," Stowers said. "After watching film, it's not as bad as it looked. Our kicker had a sore hamstring so we couldn't kick the ball, so we turned the ball over twice on downs inside the 30-yard line. We also fumbled the ball inside the five-yard line. So we controlled most of the game. The biggest takeaway is that we just need to learn how to finish drives. We're one or two blocks away from being elite. We need to learn how to finish drives and put teams away." Next week the Trojans hit the road to face Christian Brothers, a team still searching for its first win at 0-6.