Winning debut for first-year coach Greg Alexander
The opening game of the 2018 high school football season couldn’t have gone much better for the Eagles on Friday, running roughshod over visiting Sonoma Valley in a 21-0 rout.
The win marked the winning debut of first-year head coach Greg Alexander, a former star high school and college quarterback, who took the reins from former coach Chad Talley last spring.
“Our guys did a really good job up front, opening holes for our backs,” Alexander said. “Defensively, we rallied to the ball. The big thing for us was no turnovers.”
The Eagles (1-0) will get an early bye in the schedule this week and will resume pre-league action on Friday, Aug. 31 when they host Novato in a 7:30 p.m. varsity kickoff.
Fast start keys win
Cloverdale took charge from the opening kick in Friday’s clash with Sonoma, as junior quarterback Shayne Turner directed a pair of first-quarter drives resulting in rushing touchdowns from Turner and running back Cesar Buenrostro for a 15-0 lead.
The Dragons had no answer for the Cloverdale ground game in the second period, with Buenrostro cashing in on another strong march to make it 21-0 Eagles at the break.
The Cloverdale defense took over after intermission, throttling the Dragons’ attack while the Eagle’s offense went to work on the clock. The score remained unchanged in the final two quarters as Cloverdale coasted to a 21-0 win.
Turner enjoyed a solid debut under center, completing 7 of 9 pass attempts for 93 yards, while rushing for 31 yards on 10 carries and one score on the ground. He averaged 10.33 yards per completion for a quarterback rating of 109.7.
Buenrostro set the tone for a great season with 12 carries for 112 yards and two touchdowns in amassing nearly 200 yards all-purpose yards. John Wesele added 16 runs for 50 yards.
Leading receivers included Jesus Marciel (3-31 yards), Garrett Robertson (3-31 yards), Buenrostro (3-16 yards) and Wesele (1-14 yards). The Eagles had 304 yards in total offense.
Although the opening-game victory was a great start for the season, Alexander was far from satisfied.
“We have a lot of room for improvement,” he said. “We had six or seven bad exchanges on offense and some mixed assignments up front. At this point in the season we’re just trying to put our guys in the best spots to be successful.
