QB star Ricky Cole and Inderkum Tigers take out Monterey Trail, visit No. 1 Folsom next
Reggie Harris first got a glimpse of Ricky Cole two years ago, when Cole was a wide-eyed freshman and Harris, his coach, was wide-eyed with intensity.
What happened that season with the Inderkum High School football program was the view of a freshman who showed promise but made youthful mistakes. But Harris knew he had a player.
“Threw him into the varsity fire, and he showed grit — a lot of grit,” Harris said Friday night.
Some three hours later, the coach was still raving about his junior quarterback, as was Tigers offensive coordinator Justin Reber and any number of Tigers teammates. There was plenty to talk about: Cole passed for 240 yards and four touchdowns, and he rushed for 36 yards and two more scores to ignite Inderkum’s 50-21 victory at Monterey Trail in a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I quarterfinal in Elk Grove.
The host Mustangs, riding a seven-game winning streak, pulled a classic Monterey Trail first quarter in an attempt to keep Cole and Company in idle mode. Running 21 plays with just one pass out of the veer offense, MT occupied the entire 12-minute period, and then scored on the first play of the second on a D’Adrien Sanders 1-yard plunge to cap a 98-yard drive.
Cole watched that quarter come and go, eager to get out there to lead his team. He had touchdown passes of 34 yards to Lono Chouteau and eight yards to Christian Harris for a 14-7 lead. With 27 seconds left in the half, Baron Taylor returned an interception 90 yards to the end zone for a 21-7 lead. Cole made it 28-7 with a 16-yard scoring run, made it 35-21 with a 43-yard TD strike to Zayden Maxwell, then extended it to 42-21 on a 17-yard run. He accounted for the final points with a 6-yard TD to Leandrew Jenkins with 4:30 left to play.
Whew. That’s what Inderkum does: score in bunches, averaging 53 points during its 11-game winning streak. The victory lands the Tigers at top-seeded Folsom next Friday in a semifinal.
How good has it been for Cole this season? Well, his father, Rick, is his quarterbacks coach; he has a brother on the team in JJ Cole; and the team is 11-1. He’s a 3.8-GPA student who has the attention of all of his teammates beyond his 2,147 passing yards, his ongoing school-record 42 TD passes and his 11 rushing scores. He talks team a lot, and the Tigers are on the prowl, rolling along with a chance to really make some noise with a spirited effort at the two-time defending champions.
“Definitely the time of my life,” Cole said, beaming. “I love my teammates. We have a lot of guys. We knew that Monterey Trail would play smashmouth and run, run, run, but we thought that if we could score 35 points, we’d win.
“I’m excited to play Folsom. We know how good they are.”
Reber, the offensive coach, said Cole has earned every bit of his success this season. Cole credits his offensive line for the time to make plays and his defense for making stops.
“He puts in the work,” Reber said of Cole. “He can make plays with his legs and he can throw it, and we have a lot of weapons. Love the kid. He’s one of the best players in the city.”
The whole section, really, and so is the defense under the direction of Harris, who doubles as defensive coordinator. Any talk that Inderkum hasn’t played anyone is a bit misguided. Losing a season opener to storied Del Oro has served as a continual wake-up call that as good as the Tigers have been, they still have a blot on their record, that they can be taken to task.
Inderkum also handed D-III No. 2-seed Woodcreek its only loss, 20-15, to capture the Capital Valley Conference championship. Friday marked the sixth meeting between Inderkum and Monterey Trail and the first in the playoffs. Each time, the road team has prevailed.
“I’d say that Monterey Trail is somebody,” Reber said.
Harris agreed. He is the spirited coach who coaches his kids hard. He will bark at them, fume at them, and also love them up just as much. This is who and what he is, and it’s worked everywhere Harris has been, be it his Grant Pacers assistant coaching days, coaching in Florida or coaching locally.
“I love this team and these kids and it’s an honor to coach them,” Harris said. “We’re a family, a unit, together. These kids may hate me before they love me because I’m tough on them and hold them accountable, but they know I’m genuine. We can win championships here. We can do all kinds of things here.”
The coach also sports quite the flashy game pants. They’re loud, extravagant and more.
“The kids tell me I have swag, so I have fun with it,” Harris said with a laugh.
Back to Cole. He’s the team leader. Those game-day pants by the head coach?
“Love coach, but sometimes we’ve got to lie a little and tell them he has great pants when we know better,” Cole said with a laugh. “No, really. Sometimes he has some pants with fire. We’re all having fun.”
The real fun starts next week.
This story was originally published November 10, 2023 at 11:41 PM.