THE PANTHERS open the Solano County Athletic Conference season tonight at undefeated American Canyon.

Benicia High’s varsity football team begins its quest for a third-straight Solano County Athletic Conference championship tonight when the Panthers travel to American Canyon to take on the undefeated Wolves.

Coming off a bye week, the Panthers (2-3) got a chance to heal their wounds and work out some kinks. Senior quarterback Devin Holden, who missed Benicia’s 14-12 loss at Concord on Sept. 23 due to an injury, is expected to start tonight. Senior receiver Mario Ferreira, who hasn’t played since injuring his shoulder in the season opener, is also expected to return.

“We just cleaned things up and worked on getting healthy,” said Benicia head coach Craig Holden. “We feel like we’re just a play or two away from being 4-1 instead of 2-3. Devin is ready to go and having Mario back just puts another athlete on the field and makes American Canyon have to worry about somebody else.”

American Canyon is a legit 5-0, having outscored their opponents 228-95. The Wolves clobbered a good Inderkum team, 54-19, on Sept. 9 and followed that up with a 71-36 dismantling of Wood.

“They have a good team and there’s a reason why they’re 5-0, but we’re a confident group and we’ll go in and battle and hopefully come out with the win,” Holden said.

American Canyon’s ground attack has been chewing up opponents all season. Senior running back Andrew Rapacon has already rushed for 497 yards and 10 touchdowns (Benicia as a team has rushed for only 456 yards and six touchdowns). Senior quarterback Darren Antes has rushed for another 462 yards and five touchdowns while teammates Kama Aalona and Anthony Gobert have added another 561 rushing yards and nine TDs.

When opposing defenses focus on American Canyon’s ground game, Antes throws to 6-foot-3 receiver Gamon Howard, who leads the Wolves with 14 receptions.

“They have a lot of weapons they can hit you with,” Holden said. “But defensively we’ve been pretty good all year. We just need to know our assignments and have everybody do what they’re supposed to do.”

On the defensive side of the ball, linebacker Lavar Seay leads American Canyon with seven sacks while Rapacon leads the team in tackles. The Wolves have 19 sacks in five games.

The Panthers have won the last two meetings, including a 35-28 victory at Drolette Stadium last year, but making it three straight won’t be easy. American Canyon is averaging 53 points per game while the Panthers haven’t scored more than 24 points in any game this season.

“We have to execute, not turn the ball over and not make many penalties,” Holden said. “If we do that, we have a good shot. We need to get some stops and then get some scores. If we get down near that end zone, we need to score. We can’t afford to shoot ourselves in the foot.”

Benicia will celebrate Homecoming the following Friday at Vallejo’s Corbus Field.

Sharing is caring!