Last week’s 45-27 victory over previously unbeaten El Dorado in the opening round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III playoffs has Benicia High’s football team feeling like giant killers. The Panthers have an even bigger giant to slay in Friday night’s quarterfinals when they take on No. 1 seed Inderkum in Sacramento.
Benicia (7-4), seeded No. 9 in the Division III playoffs, has never advanced past the SJS quarterfinals in the 14-year tenure of head coach Craig Holden. Inderkum (10-1) is a No. 1 seed for the first time since 2009 and has lost in the quarterfinals in each of the past two seasons.
Holden and the Panthers feel ready to take on the challenge of facing a No. 1 seed on the road.
“They’re a No. 1 seed for a reason,” Holden said of Inderkum. “They’re big and physical and pretty fast. But we’re still playing and we get another chance to show Inderkum what we have to offer.”
The Panthers have been playing their best football over the past two months, winning seven of their past eight games while capturing their first Solano County Athletic Conference championship since 2009. Last week’s win over No. 8 seed El Dorado was only Benicia’s second postseason victory in the past five years.
“We’re on a good streak and the kids believe,” Holden said. “When we start getting confidence, we take the approach that we can win this whole thing. Why not us? We have nothing to lose because everyone expects us to lose. We can play loose and hopefully catch (Inderkum) sleeping.”
Inderkum High has only one SJS championship in school history, winning the coed tennis title in 2006. The Tigers feel poised to add a football championship to that list riding a defense that is allowing only 13 points per game and a running attack averaging 10 yards per carry.
Senior running back Austin Thurman (jersey No. 3) is the workhorse for Inderkum’s ground game. His 129 carries for 1,279 yards and 18 touchdowns lead the team, and three other Tigers have 400 yards or more rushing.
“We’re hoping to not get run over,” Holden said. “We’ll do some things to try and stop them and play gap control. If we can slow ‘em down in the backfield, we have a good chance of getting our defense off the field. Hopefully we can execute our defensive philosophy.”
Senior quarterback Jonathan Henry only attempts about six passes per game, and Inderkum has only one receiver with more than nine receptions (senior Larry Hardy with 16).
“If you overplay the run, that’s when they hit you with the pass,” Holden said. “We don’t expect to be able to stop them on every play, but we can contain them a little.”
Benicia counters with a running game that seems to get better every week and an aerial attack featuring junior quarterback Riley Pitkin and receivers Weston Carr and Jason Shelley. Pitkin has thrown for 14 touchdowns with only two interceptions over the past eight games while Carr and Shelley consistently come up with big catches in big situations.
“We’ll take whatever they’re giving us and take it from there,” Holden said. “We want to knock them off and shock the Section. We’re coming in as the underdog but we’re excited to play against a good team.”
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