Prep football: Arroyo Grande quarterback Sawyer May embraces dual-threat role
Sawyer May had been here before.
The clock was ticking down in Friday’s game between Arroyo Grande and Garces of Bakersfield, and the Eagles had the ball and a chance for their first lead of the game with about a minute remaining. Just last season, May led the Eagles down the field in the semifinals of the CIF-Southern Section Northern Division playoffs with less than a minute left and came up just 10 yards short of a victory.
This time May took matters into his own hands.
The senior quarterback lined up in the shotgun formation and took the snap, dropping back to pass. He was almost immediately pressured from his left, forcing him out of the pocket. What lay in front of him was nothing but green grass. After a dive to the pylon, the Eagles had their first lead of the game, and May had his second rushing touchdown of the night.
“I had a little bit of a head start,” May said with a laugh. “I’m not that fast. I knew they were in man coverage, and their defensive end collapsed. Their (linebackers) were over-leveraged, and I instinctively ran.”
The Eagles trailed 19-7 at halftime and 26-7 early in the third quarter in their eventual 36-32 victory. They needed a heroic team effort spearheaded by May to even make it close.
He was up to the task and more, running an up-tempo offense in the second half that wore out the Garces front seven. Garces had no answer for the hurry-up, except to call timeouts. May called his own number again and again, taking advantage of the man coverage that the Rams were running.
The defense stepped up too, forcing punts and corralling Garces’ speedy quarterback Conor Bruce.
The quick pace allowed the Eagles’ offensive line to open up wider and wider holes for May and the running backs to run through and freed up wide receivers in the process. Running back James Gilmet patiently waited for one of those holes to open and ran 44-yards for the score. May did the same on a 25-yard touchdown scamper in which he shed would-be tacklers along the way and ignited the Eagles in the second half.
“That was all the line, I’m telling you,” May said. “Anybody could have run that touchdown. They blocked it so well.”
May finished with 117 yards on 16 carries — not exactly what you would expect out of a quarterback known mostly for his arm. He had 32 carries for only 63 yards last season — in 13 games.
“Honestly we’ve never really asked him to do those things in the past,” coach Tom Goossen said. “This year, we came in with the mindset that if we needed to, we would run him some. He works so hard in the weight room to develop a lot of strength and good speed.”
May threw for one touchdown and was 12-for-23 for 115 yards through the air.
The possibility of the dual-threat May should worry PAC 5 defensive coordinators. May is already a prolific passer, throwing for 2,125 yards and 20 touchdowns last season. Another dimension for opposing defenses to watch for could make things even easier for May.
“I’ve always wanted to run the ball more, but I was never good at it. I’m still not that good at it,” May said.
May didn’t need to run last year with talented running backs like Bradley Mickey, Alex Cecchi and Joey DeLaRosa handling the workload. But this season is different — for the Eagles to succeed, it’s clear that May will have to be a dual-threat, something that he’s never done before.
“He’s a kid with a great head on his shoulders,” Goossen said. “He keeps himself relatively safe, and we can expect him to keep running hard when we need him to.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2016 at 2:24 PM with the headline "Prep football: Arroyo Grande quarterback Sawyer May embraces dual-threat role."