Homecoming floats and league openers … the next few weeks will feature plenty of both.

The Sac-Joaquin Section’s current football playoff system put more weight on nonleague results than ever before, but most high school coaches still take matters a lot more seriously once league play begins.

Most coaches struggle to deal with the extra pressure of homecoming night as well. And this week, Dixon coach Wes Besseghini has to deal with both as the Rams host Mesa Verde of Sacramento on homecoming night, which also will double as their Golden Empire League opener.

Dixon carries a solid 3-1 mark into the game, including three straight wins.

Will C. Wood is 4-0, and the Wildcats will try to extend their unbeaten record while watching floats and queens and princesses. Freedom of Oakley is the opponent for Wood’s 26th homecoming game.

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American Canyon High School running back Bruce Crowder scored four touchdowns in the first half.

Unfortunately for the Wolves, Crowder was not even close to being the story on Friday night.

The Will C. Wood football team scored a school-record 63 points by halftime en route to a 70-33 rout of the Wolves at Wolf Den Stadium.

American Canyon (0-4) was within 35-27 with 4:37 in the second quarter but the Wildcats (4-0) scored four touchdowns to finish the first half, the first one a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown from Tayvian Cunningham on the ensuing kickoff.

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If Will C. Wood and Bishop O’Dowd high schools are going to continue squaring off on the football field, they might want to consider raising ticket prices.

The two teams played their second classic in as many years on Friday night. Wood got the upper hand again, as Marcus Howard hit Arthur Jackson with a 1-yard touchdown pass with six seconds remaining to lift the Wildcats to a 49-45 win.

Wood won 21-17 in the final seconds last year.

“We did it again,” said Howard, who threw for 371 yards and five TDs, with Jackson catching a school-record four.

Howard drove the Wildcats 66 yards in 11 plays over the final 2:39.

He had a key 19-yard completion to Jackson on a fourth-and-2 play from the Bishop O’Dowd 45-yard line. He also hit running back Damon Lewis over the middle with a 21-yard completion to the Dragons’ 2-yard line with 26 seconds left.

After a timeout, Germaine Lewis was stopped just short of the goal-line on first-and-goal.

Wood had one timeout left but kept the clock running, and Howard lobbed a pass to Jackson in the right corner of the end zone.

“It was his play call … I was going to call the same thing, but he beat me to it,” Wood head coach Carlos Meraz said. “Arthur just does such a good job of catching the ball. He’s just really hard to defend 1-on-1.”

The play gave Wood a 47-45 lead, and Howard added a 2-point conversion pass to Jackson for the final total.

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