SACRAMENTO – Tanner Trosin got the record – three of them, actually – but the Bulldogs of a different color wound up embracing the real prize.
Tanner Trosin accounted for
more than 500 yards on Saturday.
File photo by Chris Trim
In an edge-of-your-cold-bleacher-seat affair,
Vacaville held off the prolific Trosin and
Folsom 39-35 to win the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II championship at chilly Sacramento State on Saturday night. In doing so, the Bulldogs derailed the repeat hopes of Folsom, which won the section D-II title last season over state-ranked No. 1 Grant and then rolled nationally ranked Serra-Gardena in the state D-II bowl game in Carson.
So now suddenly Vacaville, winners of 12 straight and losing only to still-unbeaten Marin Catholic of Kentfield 33-29 on Sept. 10, harbors its own D-II bowl hopes. Vacaville is 13-1.
First, the Bulldogs had to find a way to slow down and stall Trosin, a starting defensive back for Folsom last season and a backup to MaxPreps National Player of the Year Dano Graves. Trosin became the first player in California history to eclipse the 5,000-yard passing plateau for a single season when he hit
Carson McMurtrey for a national-record tying 99-yard touchdown for a 14-7 second quarter lead.
Curtis Goins rushed for 132 yards
and two TDs for Vacaville.
File photo by Dennis Lee
Trosin passed for 407 yards and four touchdowns, giving him 5,185 yards on the season, shattering the state mark of 4,907 by David Koral of Pacific Palisades in 1999, according to the Cal-Hi Sports record book. Trosin rushed for 101 yards and a touchdown as the ultimate spread-option quarterback dynamo - and his 6,349 total yards makes him the state's all-time single-season total yards leader. Trosin for the season had 49 touchdown passes and 20 rushing.
But Vacaville limited Trosin to "just" 104 yards passing in the second half after he torched them for 300 and three scores in the first. Vacaville held Trosin on downs in the fourth quarter on his team's last-gasp effort, one in which Folsom did not score and then ran out the clock to secure the program's second section title since 2006.
What's more, it was Vacaville's resolve and ground game that boosted it. A year ago in a playoff game, Folsom rolled 75-6, scoring a national playoff record 75 points in the first half, in the driving rain.
Vacaville returned just four starters off that team, and coach Mike Papadopoulos said his team buried that ball from last season this week.
There's not much Tanner Trosin
didn't do on the football field
this season.
File photo by Chris Trim
For Vacaville,
Curtis Goins rushed for 132 yards on 25 carries with two touchdowns,
Melvin Mason had 23 for 111 and two scores and
Terrance Trueblood had 12 for 100 and a touchdown. Vacaville rushed 65 times for 335 yards.
"Just a great win," Papadopoulos said. "Can't be more proud."
The state's 10 commissioners meet on Dec. 11 to vote on bowl teams. A Vacaville obstacle is Del Oro. The Golden Eagles of Loomis in Placer County are 13-1, section D-III winners (but D-II bowl slated with state enrollment) with only a loss to national No. 5 Westlake in overtime early in the season. Will voters deem Del Oro's loss to Westlake more favorably than Vacaville's setback to Marin Catholic?
Joe Davidson has covered preps for The Sacramento Bee since 1988. Follow him on Twitter: sb_joedavidson
