Back-to-back losses to close out the regular season isn’t the way Denair Coach Anthony Armas envisioned his team preparing for the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 7 football playoffs, but that’s the scenario the Coyotes now face.
Friday’s disappointing 41-14 loss to Waterford on the heels of the previous week’s 27-20 defeat to Delhi and left Denair (5-5, 3-3) tied for third in the Southern League. But whatever frustration the Coyotes may have been feeling was replaced by excitement Sunday when the playoff pairings were announced.
Denair earned the No. 7 seed and will host No. 10 Delta (6-4) of Clarksburg on Friday at 7 p.m. The winner will travel to Southern League co-champion and No. 2 seed Stone Ridge Christian on Nov. 15.
It is the first time in five years Denair has qualified for the playoffs.
“The kids are definitely excited,” Armas said. “We had a viewing party down at the school for the bracket announcements. There was a loud cheer when we were announced. The goal from the beginning of the season was the playoffs. … The players know anything can happen once we’re in. They’re excited to go chase that blue banner.”
Denair already is planning a special “welcome” for Delta at Jack Lytton Stadium this Friday.
“It will be a ‘blackout.’ We encourage as many fans as possible to show up dressed in black to support our kids,” Armas said.
To win this week, Denair will have to execute better than it did against Waterford, which jumped out to a 27-8 halftime lead and never looked back.
“We missed a lot of assignments on offense and had some misalignments on defense,” Armas said. “Our message at halftime was to clean up the mistakes. Offensively, we were making a lot of mistakes with our blocking assignments. Defensively, we told them to fix the alignment issues and step up and tackle.”
Denair’s only touchdowns came on a 2-yard run by Jesse Ruelas in the second quarter and a 5-yard pass from Derek Potter to Degan Butler in the fourth period.
The Coyotes will have to be better on both sides of the ball this week against Delta, which finished second in the Sacramento Metropolitan Athletic League. The Saints like to spread their offense out and throw the ball. Armas expects Delta’s defense to challenge Denair to pass.
“They have a pretty tall wide receiver they like to target quite a bit,” he said. “I am sure they will commit a lot of defenders to the run when they play us, but so does everyone else.”
JV score: Denair 6, Waterford 6. The Coyotes finished 8-1-1 this season and tied Waterford for first place in the Southern League.
