By Chace Bryson
Clayton Valley High’s 2021 fall football season has taken all sorts of twists and turns.
Wildfire smoke and poor air quality forced the Ugly Eagles to travel to Turlock twice in four days in play their late-August season opener — on a Monday.
Then Stellar Prep-Hayward abruptly pulled out of its game with Clayton Valley one night before the Ugly Eagles’ scheduled Sept. 17 home opener. After a 48-hour scheduling frenzy, they teed it up again on Monday night and defeated Benicia.
After a bye week, the Ugly Eagles started October with a gut-wrenching loss at California-San Ramon. The Grizzlies scored with less than 20 seconds to go to win both teams’ East Bay Athletic League opener 19-18.
And one week later, the season took another upswing. Brenden Bush threw for two touchdowns — including an improbable first half-ending Hail Mary — and rushed for another as the Ugly Eagles upset NorCal’s 12th-ranked San Ramon Valley.
“Our message this week was all about finishing and mistakes that we made (against Cal) because we were a little bit too careless,” Clayton Valley co-coach Tim Murphy said after the win. “They’re still a young team, and there’s a lot of maturity that has to grow, but they played well against a very good team.”
Clayton Valley had no trouble moving the ball against the Wolves, dominating time of possession to keep a very good San Ramon Valley offense off the field. Four of the Ugly Eagles’ six possessions used more than six minutes of game clock. That included a mammoth 14-play, nine-plus minute drive that spanned the third and fourth quarters and ended with a Nicholas Khashabi 1-yard run and a 21-7 lead.
However, it was the team’s shortest drive of the night that may have been the most impactful.
With the scored tied 7-7, Clayton Valley got the ball at its own 20 with 1:36 left before the half. The Ugly Eagles were able to drive to the San Ramon Valley 42 yard line with six seconds left. Bush then scrambled both to his right and then back to his left before unleashing a Hail Mary to the left corner of the end zone.
Receivers Cody Demartini and Leighton Helfrick were both there behind at least four San Ramon Valley defenders. The ball fell perfectly over the outstretched arms of the defenders and right into arms of Demartini.
“That was a perfectly placed ball,” Demartini said. “I just had to time it and jump up.”
The touchdown sent the home crowd into a frenzy and gave the Uglies a 14-7 halftime lead. And it proved to be the difference after both teams scored twice in the second half.
“That was impressive,” Murphy said of the momentum-changing toss and catch. “That wasn’t me. I just sent all four to the end zone and Bush did a great job scrambling to buy time. … It was nothing I did right, it was just a great throw.”
San Ramon Valley made things interesting with a late touchdown pass with 16.5 seconds remaining in the game. But Emilio Strange was able to corral the big bounce of an onside kick and Clayton Valley ran one play in victory formation to salt its fifth win of the season.
The Ugly Eagles (5-2, 1-1 EBAL) will close out the EBAL season with home games against Amador Valley on Oct. 22 and Monte Vista on Oct. 29. Clayton Valley then finishes its regular season with a nonleague contest at De La Salle.
“I’d give us a 7 right now. The 7 comes more from improving each week. The improvement on the field, but the mental part is still not there. … They’re nice kids. They never get in trouble and they never have problems, but with that comes a loss of that chip on the shoulder that some of my other teams have had.”
Demartini said the mantra the team embraced after the Cal loss is sinking in. And staying true to that mantra will be the biggest key for the team moving forward.
“This week we talked about everybody doing their jobs,” Demartini said. “The loss to Cal wasn’t on anyone; it was a whole team loss. If everyone on our team does our job, we’re not losing.”
