DHS Football: Rams Look Ahead After 42-0 Blowout by Linden in Non-League Finale

The varsity football team has to be glad its non-Golden Empire League schedule is over.

In its final tune-up before GEL play, the Rams suffered its third shutout and fourth 40-plus point defeat of the season in a 42-0 blowout in Linden Friday night.

Though the grass was damp, Dixon coach Wes Besseghini wasn’t going to point his finger at it for the Rams five fumbles, two of which resulted in Lions’ touchdowns.

“I'm not going to make excuses for the wet field,” he said. “I think that we still have work to do and it was evident tonight.”

Besseghini said he’s been asking his player to be physical and to control the ball, but that they’re only doing one of those things.

“That's all I've asked from these guys,” he said. “I've asked them to come out and be physical. They're being physical but they're not taking care of the ball."

Besseghini told his team after the game to meet at the school for practice Saturday morning, telling his team that’s when the preseason will end.

“We’re going to watch film, we’re going to run and we’re going to move on,” Besseghini said.

Dixon was down 14-0 before it took two offensive snaps. After the Lions (3-2) went 78 yards in 11 plays on their opening drive of the game, capped by a Shawn Summers one-yard touchdown, the Rams’ offense turned the ball over on its very first play of the game.

Deep in Dixon territory, Marcos Pangelinan tried to hand off the ball to Korey Hall, but a miscommunication between running back and quarterback left the handoff on the ground, and the fumble was picked up Linden.

The Lions made Dixon pay for its mistake on the very next play, with quarterback Daniel Snider connecting with Brett Holladay for a 14-yard touchdown pass, giving Linden a 14-0 lead in less than 20 seconds.

In the second quarter down 21-0, Pangelinan fumbled a snap from center Sean Grottkau on third-and-one from the Linden 46, and the Lions once again recovered the loose ball. The seven-play, 34-yard drive had been the Rams best drive of the game to that point.

Linden and Dixon would then trade three-and-outs before the Lions would regain possession and score, with Snider finding Chris Tschirky for a 12-yard touchdown to make it a 28-0 game.

With less than two minutes to go in the first half following the Tschirky score, the Rams tried to drive down the field in hopes of putting points on the board, but only set themselves further back.

Pangelinan tried to make a pitch to Hall, but it was tipped by Linden’s Daniel Titus, who picked it up and went 15 yards for a walk-in touchdown to put the Rams in a 35-0 hole at halftime.

The Rams rushed for 81 yards compared to the Lions’ 210.

“We shifted our offensive line around quite a few times trying to find the right mix, trying to find the right balance, and so far we haven’t done it,” Besseghini said.

Dixon will open its GEL schedule at Lindhurst (Olivehurst) next Friday at 7:30 p.m., where Besseghini is looking forward to recording an important statistic his team has left blank so far this year.

“A win,” he said.  

Linden 42, Dixon 0

Dixon 0 0 0 0 — 0
Linden 14 21 0 7— 42

Scoring summary
7:13, 1st: L — Summers 3 run (Robles kick)

6:59, 1st: L — Holladay 14 pass from Snider (Robles kick)

11:25, 2nd: L — Snider 3 run(Robles kick)

1:22, 2nd: L — Tschirky 4 pass from Snider (Robles kick)

1:09, 2nd: L — Titus 15 fumble return (Robles kick)

6:58, 4th: D — Snider 28 run (Robles kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing (car-yards):  D — Hall 9-33, Pangelinan 7-30, Bonovich 3-28, Roscoe 1-0, Semeraro 3-6, Miller 4-(-22), No. 25 1-6. L — Lewis 21-94, Summers 7-33, Snider 10-76, Wright 1-7.
Passing (comp-att-yards-ints): D — Pangelinan 2-4-32-0, Miller 2-2-35-0. L —Snider 3-7-23-0
Receiving (rec-yards): D — Roscoe 1-23, No. 25 2-35, Beukelman 1-7. L —Holladay 1-14, Mears 1-2, Arnold 1-7.

Team offense (rush-pass-total)

Dixon — 81-67-148

Linden — 210-23-233

Fumbles/lost: D — 5/2; L — 1/0.

Records: Dixon 0-5, Linden 3-2

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