Prep football: American Canyon dominates Napa 62-21 in cancer awareness game

As American Canyon head coach Trevor Hudson set foot on the field at Wolf Den Stadium for his team’s matchup Friday night, you couldn’t help but notice the thrilling spirit shine through his wide and bright smile as he paced through his squad’s warm-up drills wearing a sharp pink football jersey.

The Wolves were playing for more than just themselves against a hungry Napa High School team — and Hudson made sure of that.

American Canyon utterly stamped itself as not only a dominant force within the Vine Valley Athletic League en route to a 62-21 victory against the Grizzlies, but did so with a purpose that goes beyond the game.

In traditional fashion, the Wolves designated Friday night’s matchup as the annual “Pink Game,” in an effort to shed light on cancer awareness.

At every turn, angle and view, it was nothing but the color pink being repped by nearly every fan in the stands, every player on the field and coach on the sideline.

Going beyond just wearing the color associated with the effort to create breast cancer awareness, players and coaches also carried the names of friends and family members who’ve been affected by cancer on the backs of their jerseys in a classy act by Hudson and his team.

“I was thinking about everybody that's out here,” Hudson said. “You think about these young men who, when they saw the jersey we handed out, you see the emotional response that some of them had, it becomes bigger than yourself.”

Standout American Canyon senior running back Ojani Castillo was playing for more than just himself Friday night. The 5-foot-9 back who finished with 109 yards and three scores dedicated Friday’s win to his father, Sergio, who lost his mother to breast cancer.

“I was grateful enough to wear his last name and go out there and ball out for his side of the family and everything,” Castillo said. “I was coming out here to play for him and I really wanted to make sure I left the last name impression for him.”

Castillo wasted no time, taking it to the house on a 69-yard rush from an inside handoff on the opening play of the game.

The inspiring play of No. 22 opened the floodgates for an offensive outburst by American Canyon. With almost every possession, the Wolves found themselves in the end zone — with junior quarterback Mason Harris making sure the American Canyon offense didn’t take the foot off the gas.

Harris finished with 106 yards on 10 passing attempts while showing a refined ability to deliver passes with accuracy. One of his favorite targets of the night, senior tight end Abdul Kates, had plenty to eat Friday against the Grizzlies, totaling 60 yards and one touchdown on three catches.

“It’s just something we needed; we’ve been through the adversity,” Kates said of the team’s win and offensive performance. “We had to handle business.”

As the score hit 49-6 going into the halftime break, the only chants louder than the Wolves’ student section came from an even younger group of kids who realized one of their internet-famous idols was on the sideline.

In attendance was popular content creator and former collegiate wide receiver AJ Greene, who has amassed nearly 5 million followers on TikTok and half-a-million followers on Instagram.

Greene, who has an established relationship with Hudson, wanted to make sure he used his platform to provide exposure for the work his good friend is doing for the Wolves’ football program.

“ (Hudson) got the keys to the team, he let us come out here, show some love to the boys during camp, I told him I’d come back for that pink game, had to come support,” Greene said. “My whole goal is to impact the next generation of athletes, whether it was through football or YouTube. It’s kind of exciting to see them kind of just yelling and cheering, interacting — it’s always cool to see the impact.”

At the end of an emotional night that was capped off with the 41-point victory, Hudson said his goal for his team is to represent the best of the American Canyon region — and Friday’s victory was just a taste of the program he’s trying to build in the North Bay.

“When you come to a place you want to implement change, and I wanted to make sure that we brought that to this community,” Hudson said. “American Canyon is a hardworking community, blue collar — we got great people, great diversity and families who go through real-life problems. To take a moment to celebrate them was something I was looking forward to. It took a lot of work, from the team moms to the administration — who showed a tremendous amount of support — to the people in the school and the parents in our program who did a great job.”