At least, that's the analogy the veteran Willow Glen coach used when he described his club's tight win over the Firebirds in a game that could have been a runaway.

Willow Glen jumped out to a quick start on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Justin Johnson to Tony Owens, and the Rams appeared to come right back with a second touchdown when Doug Dionne picked off a Fremont pass and raced to the end zone. But the second touchdown was called back because of a roughing the passer penalty, and that's when things got rough for the Rams.

Fremont tied the game 7-7 in the third quarter, but Willow Glen came fighting right back to regain the lead.

"That was a real tribute to our kids," said Parker. "They went right down and scored."

Johnson and Owens hooked up on a 2-yard touchdown pass and John Gibilisco kicked his second extra point to give the Rams a 14-7 lead.

A safety on a bad punt snap got the Firebirds close at 14-9, but that's as close as Fremont would get against the stingy Willow Glen defense.

That was a tired Rams defense that was on the field much of the second half.

"We seemed to lose our energy and momentum for a while," said Parker. "We had to punt the ball three or four times."

Fremont took over possession with a great field position a couple of times late in the game, but each time the Rams defense rose to the occasion.

And the offense, which was "sputtering a little bit," said Parker, put together a late drive to kill the clock.

On a big third and eight late in the game, Johnson hit Dionne with a key 12-yard pass for a first down. A couple of first downs later, the Rams were able to take a knee to clinch the win.

"There were two big keys in the game," said the coach.

Parker singled out Chris Hobbs for his punting and Ryan Radjabi for his defensive effort as linebacker.

"[Hobbs] punted two balls into the wind for over 40 yards each with the roll, and that's unheard of at our place," said Parker. "One of them pinned them inside their 10-yard line."

In all, Hobbs had five punts for an average of more than 40 yards.

Radjabi didn't start in the game, but he did come off the bench to intercept three Fremont passes.

"That was huge," said Parker. "Two of his interceptions stopped Fremont drives. He did a great job."

The coach was also pleased with the performance of Thomas Ochoa in the secondary.

"[Jesse] Enchill, No. 10, is their big play, go-to guy, and Ochoa kept him out of the end zone," said Parker. "Ochoa was all over him."

Enchill did manage to catch five passes in the game, but all were for short yardage.

"He was 0 for 5 deep," said Parker of Ochoa. "So No. 10 didn't score, and I know that's a big part of their offense."

Johnson led the Willow Glen offense, hitting on 10 of 17 passes for 114 yards and the two touchdowns. Owens had three catches for 72 yards.

Frank Sarinana led the ground attack with 65 yards on 10 carries. He also caught a pass for 25 yards. Steve Lopez supported with 34 yards on eight tries.

"We were able to move the ball a little bit on the ground," said Parker.

"We're ahead of last year," added the coach, whose club was 0-2 and scoreless after the first two weeks of the season in 2001.

The Rams, now 1-1, will try to make it two straight wins this week when they take on Silver Creek on Sept. 27, 7:30 p.m., at San Jose PAL Stadium. The Raiders are 1-1, losing their opener 26-24 to Leigh before pounding Mt. Pleasant 41-8 last week.

"They're going to be tough," said Parker.

Quarterback Dustin Long and speedster Anthony Reyes lead the Silver Creek offense.

"Reyes is the story, running in there behind their big 250-pound fullback and then picking his spots," said Parker.

The Rams will open the Blossom Valley Athletic League Santa Teresa Division season on Oct. 4 at home against Lincoln.


WG comeback

The Willow Glen frosh-soph football team pulled out a 29-20 comeback win over Fremont early last Saturday.

Quarterback Duane Young ran for a touchdown and Matt Arevallo kicked the extra point and Mike Estrella had a 10-yard touchdown run as Willow Glen opened a 13-7 lead, but the Firebirds came back to move in front 14-13, then scored again to lead 20-13.

The young Rams came fighting back, though. J.C. Drummer scored on a 2-yard run and Young tossed to Estrella for the 2-point conversion to put Willow Glen back in front 21-20.

"That showed a lot of maturity," said Parker of the come-from-behind effort.

But the Rams weren't finished yet. Arevallo dropped a Fremont ball carrier for a 5-yard loss, then a play later hit a Fremont back in the end zone for a safety.

The Rams closed out the scoring on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Young to Anthony Daniels.