Dons sloppy in easy win

This after his Dons pounded visiting Oak Grove 41-13 Friday night in San Mateo.

“Just the sloppiness (has me upset),” Parham said, who is in his second season as the Dons’ head coach. “We’re such a talented group. We’re going to waste a great opportunity if we don’t clean up the way we play.”

Clearly this was a coaching tactic to make sure his team knows they haven’t arrived — yet. But the Dons showed flashes that they could be poised for a return to the top of the division.

This 2025 Aragon offense is not your dad’s or uncle’s. The Dons have transformed from a power-running team to one that features more a West Coast Offense aesthetic — where short passes are used as a quasi running game.

And it worked well Friday night. Two junior quarterbacks, starter Isaiah Johnson and backup Isaac Martinez, combined to go 17 for 28 for 280 yards and four touchdowns. Junior receiver Nick Mazzola had a monster game, gathering in eight passes for 190 yards and three touchdowns.

Parham said he wasn’t surprised by Mazzola’s game.

“Not at all,” Parham said. “We were expecting that last year. We called him up after the second game (in 2024) and he got hurt immediately.”

The Aragon defense, however, is one long-time fans would be more familiar as the Dons’ “D” dominated. Oak Grove (0-2) had just 14 yards in the first half and no first downs. At the end, the Eagles had managed just 72 yards of total offense, five first downs and a meaningless touchdown as time expired.

Additionally, the Dons came up five tackles for a loss and three interceptions, including a 29-yard pick-6 from Charlie Wilcox.

And for one quarter, the Dons were firing on all cylinders offensively with Johnson running the show. Aragon opened the game with an onside kick that was recovered by Fabian Nova, giving the Dons the ball at midfield.

Johnson took over under center and guided the Dons 49 yards on eight plays, culminating with a beautiful Johnson-to-Mazzola, over-the-shoulder hook up for a 26-yard scoring strike and a 7-0 lead.

After the Aragon defense forced a three-and-out, the Dons offense went right back to work. Johnson hit Mazzola on a crossing pattern for a 10-yard gain, with a horse-collar penalty tacked on. After an incompletion, Johnson found Mazzola on a down-block screen that he took 36-yards for his second score of the night and a 14-0 lead.

But Oak Grove got back in the game on the ensuing kickoff as Brandon Stewart fielded the ball at his own 4. He headed right and motored up the right sideline for a 96-yard kickoff return, cutting the Eagles’ deficit in half midway through the opening quarter.

And the Eagles were back in business three plays later when they recovered an Aragon fumble at the Dons’ 29.

But the Dons got the ball back three plays later themselves, when Zach Laguna, playing center field, easily intercepted a pass that was well overthrown. Oak Grove, however, stood firm, forcing a Dons’ punt. But Aragon, got the ball right back on the first of two Wilcox interceptions.

That first one set up the Dons’ third score of the first quarter. The Dons overcame a holding penalty to drive 33 yards on six plays, with Johnson hooking up with Nick Castroviejo on a drag pattern across the middle that he caught and turned upfield for a 16-yard score and a 21-7 Aragon lead.

“Other than a couple of hiccups, that’s the potential we have,” Parham said.

That opening quarter took 45 minutes, featured four touchdowns, a combined nine penalties for 95 yards and three turnovers. Aragon ran 23 plays to just nine for Oak Grove.

But the Dons were dealt a blow when Johnson, who completed 10 of 15 passes for 133 yards and three scores in that opening quarter, suffered an ankle injury on the touchdown pass to Castroviejo. Johnson, who had been battling ankle injury for the last couple of weeks, was sidelined for the rest of the game Friday night.

No problem. Aragon turned to Martinez, who started last week’s 26-21 win over Pioneer, completing 11 of 14 passes for 214 yards and three touchdowns.

He wasn’t nearly as efficient as last week, but Martinez was still pretty good. He ended up going 8 for 13 for 147 yards and an 80-yard catch-and-run for a touchdown from Mazzola. He led the Dons on their longest scoring drive of the night Friday, going 58 yards on 11 plays, with Jaxson Sullivan going into the end zone untouched from 2 yards out to give the Dons a 27-7 lead at halftime.

After turning the ball over on down to open the second half, Aragon’s Wilcox all but sealed the win when he stepped in front of a pass and took it to the house from 29 yards out for a 34-7 advantage. Mazzola’s 80-yard catch-and-run was the final nail in the Eagles’ coffin with just under 10 minutes to play.

Despite the lopsided win, Parham doesn’t want his team to get too comfortable. There is a lot of season left.

“We have so much that can be improved on,” Parham said.