Silverado dances to 7-0

One of life's great pleasures: Watching a group of Silverado football players dance the Soldier Boy, laughing, hollering.

One of life's worst: Watching a middle-aged coach join in.

But that was the atmosphere in the unbeaten Skyhawks' locker room after a gritty 21-12 victory over visiting Del Sol on Friday.

"(The dancing) started when (the song) 'Soldier Boy' first came out," said running back Telvin McMillian, who finished with 85 yards on 22 carries. "The whole world got to it, so it's been our victory dance. Seven times, baby.

"Seven mo' times, seven mo' times."

If Friday was any hint, McMillian's state title prediction could come true.

In a matchup of two 6-0 teams, No. 5 Silverado (4-0 Southeast Division) leaned heavily on a punishing defense that knocked Dragons running back Bryan Grenier out with a concussion on the team's second offensive play. Sophomore running back Earnest Hall finished with 89 yards on 18 carries -- 70 coming on the team's first score -- as Grenier's absence was notable.

"It just changed the whole tide of the game," Del Sol coach Preston Goroff said of the injury. "He gets all the reps in practice, and it really limited what we could do offensively."

Late in the game, with the running game rendered ineffective, the fourth-ranked Dragons (4-1 Southeast) went to the air. But a penetrating front seven harassed quarterback Matthew Burge throughout the second half, sacking him twice and forcing incompletions on all six of his throws.

"To be honest, it was like we were fish out of water," Goroff said. "It's like telling a run-and-shoot team you've got to run the ball to win the game."

At the heart of the Silverado defense, as usual, was middle linebacker Kolton Villa. The 6-foot-3-inch, 238-pound vocal leader was quite literally all over the field, making more than 10 tackles, carrying the ball at fullback, handling punting duties for the Skyhawks and likely filling the water bottles and folding the jerseys.

Villa's defensive efforts could not be pared down to a few plays, but his offensive contribution was easier to decipher: an early 27-yard run, a 3-yard touchdown plunge that put Silverado on the board first, a crucial fourth-quarter first down on fourth-and-1 that kept the Skyhawks in control.

"He's a kid we need on the field every down, and I know our other kids look at him like he's the man," Silverado coach Andy Ostolaza said.

Better yet -- he can dance, too.