Foothill moves to 4-0 with easy win over Eldorado

Marty Redmond stopped and had to consider for a moment before he answered.

Then he calculated that it had been six years since his Foothill Falcons had started a football season with four straight victories.

But Foothill will enter Southeast League play Thursday against Coronado sporting that perfect 4-0 record this season after the Falcons drubbed visiting Eldorado 35-0 on Saturday night.

“We executed pretty well, I thought,” Redmond said. “Our front played well on both sides of the ball, and we pretty much stopped them cold while our starters were in there.”

Actually, even after the starters began to finish their evening with more than half of the second quarter still to play, the Sundevils (0-4) didn’t do much to move the football.

It was with 7 minutes, 28 seconds left in the first half that Chris Ranieri burst around the left side and sprinted 36 yards to give Foothill a 35-0 lead and invoke the running clock.

Ranieri was the fourth Falcon to score in the first 17 minutes of the game. Foothill scored on each of its first five possessions, only being stopped on its sixth by the end of the half.

By that point, the Falcons had amassed 289 yards of total offense to just 5 yards for Eldorado. Foothill had scored on runs of 9, 7, 3 and 36 yards to go with Jordan Blakely’s 9-yard touchdown catch from Koy Riggin.

“It looks pretty easy when Isaac (Oliva) and I are running the ball,” said running back Marchaun Norris. “But it’s because the offensive line played so well. You have to give them a lot of credit.”

Riggin threw the ball just seven times in the first half, completing five for 91 yards. He did not play in the second half.

Norris scored the third and fourth touchdowns for the Falcons. On only six carries, he finished with 65 yards, including scoring runs of 7 and 3 yards.

Oliva got the ball five times on the ground for 53 yards and one touchdown. Oliva also caught one of the five completions from Riggin for another 11 yards. He also did not play in the second half.

Dylan Mueller did get to play both halves. He caught two passes for 41 yards in the first half, then played quarterback for the Falcons for the second 24 minutes.

“We were just a little bigger and stronger than they were,” Redmond said. “We got to evaluate a lot of kids tonight.”

And improving to 4-0 for the first time in six years wasn’t so bad, either.

“We just have a good mix of kids right now,” Redmond said. “We can throw the ball a little bit. We can run the ball a little bit. They’re learning to win.”

The early tests are done, though.

Now it gets tougher as league play begins Thursday.

“Coronado will be bigger and stronger,” Redmond said. “And on a short week.”