Prep football: Archie Williams stumbles against Concord

Betrayed by a porous run defense, the Archie Williams High football team did not gain any momentum in its final tune-up for league play.

In fact, the Peregrine Falcons (2-2) seemed to take a step backward in a lopsided 45-14 loss against visiting Concord on a bright Saturday in San Anselmo.

The Peregrine Falcons’ defense, which was gouged for 408 yards of offense by the Bears, might need to make some quick adjustments before kicking off Redwood Empire Mountain play next week against Novato.

“We did a lot of everything wrong on defense,” Archie Williams coach Anthony Jackson said. “It wasn’t just one thing, it was a lot of little things.”

The Peregrine Falcons’ biggest stumbling block Saturday was their inability to tackle Concord running back Jayden Reger, who ran roughshod, ripping through the middle of the line time and again for chunk yardage.

Even with a continuously running fourth-quarter clock, Reger racked up 233 yards on 33 carries and scored four touchdowns.

As far as next week’s league opener goes, Jackson was mostly at a loss for words.

“It’s hard to tell how we will do in the league after a game like this,” Jackson said. “If we play like we did before this game, we should be pretty successful.”

But this one is going to be hard to erase from the memory bank as Concord scored the first 30 points, including three second-quarter touchdowns.

Concord marched 81 yards on 12 plays the first time it touched the ball, with workhorse Reger plowing straight ahead eight different times on the drive.

The Bears proved it was no fluke on their second possession.

This time they went 78 yards on 10 plays with Reger accounting for 63 of those yards on seven carries. He capped the drive by scoring standing up from two yards out.

Both drives exhausted more than six minutes off the clock.

“That guy is a good running back,” Archie Williams quarterback Ronan Foley said. “We haven’t been able to stop big running backs in a couple of our games now. I think we’re probably tackling too high and allowing too many runs to get past the line of scrimmage.”

After Concord tacked on two more touchdowns, Archie Williams finally put points on the scoreboard in the waning seconds of the second quarter.

A 68-yard kickoff return by Gianni Testa set the table for the Peregrine Falcons’ at the Concord 27-yard line.

Foley cashed in on the field position with eight seconds remaining in the half when he lofted a 23-yard touchdown pass to Lincoln Tithof, who beat the defender in the end zone.

“It was a good job by Gianni to give us that good field position,” Foley said. “All game, my receivers kept telling me the outside was open so I just threw it over there (to Tithof) and it worked out.”

Foley completed 13 of his 26 passes for 157 yards and two touchdowns.

“We had trouble getting the offense moving because they had good linebackers who kept blitzing me on almost every pass play,” Foley said. “I took a lot of hits and it probably took its toll on the passing game.”

The Falcons did not score again until the final offensive play of the game.

Foley capped a nine-play, 60-yard drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Tithof, who led all players in receiving yards (59). Ario Maury added four catches for 46 yards for the Falcons.

Concord 45, Archie Williams 14

Non-league

Concord  6  24  0  15  – 45

Archie Williams  0  7  0  7  – 14

SCORING SUMMARY

C – Gonzalez 2 run (kick blocked)

C – Reger 2 run (Reger run)

C – Reger 27 run (Leyva pass from Gonzalez)

C – Reger 3 run (Reger run)

AW – Tithof 23 pass from Foley (Maury kick)

C – Madayag 42 pass from Gonzalez (Reger run)

C – Reger 3 run (Tamayo kick)

AW – Tithof 16 pass from Foley (Maury kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing – C, Reger 33-233, Gonzalez 8-59. Totals: 41-292. AW, Mosher 4-14, Foley 4-10, Zapata 1-(minus-1), bad snap 1-(minus-8). Totals: 10-15.

Passing – C, Gonzalez 8-11-0 122. AW, Foley 13-26-1 157.

Receiving: C, Leyva 2-28, Singleton 2-25, Madayag 2-53, Dashner 1-11, Reger 1-5. Totals: 8-122. AW, Maury 4-46, Testa 2-8, Hurd 3-39, Tithof 3-59, Pierce 1-5. Totals: 13-157.

Records: Concord 2-2; Archie Williams 2-2.