SAN JOSE >> Willow Glen capped its historic year with a 23-0 win over Leland on Thursday night in San Jose. It is the Rams’ first undefeated regular-season campaign in the MaxPreps era (since 2004) and believed to be their first since 1966.

With Thursday night’s victory, Willow Glen (10-0, 5-0) also clinched the outright championship in the Blossom Valley Athletic League Santa Teresa — Valley Division.

“I get emotional thinking about it,” coach Oscar Caballero said. “It’s a special thing that happened to a special group. I really believe that our group’s a special group. From school, from players to families to community, everything in between is special. The way they play this sport and commit to the sport, special.

“We’re not a perfect team. We’re not perfect players, we’re not perfect coaches, but we’re imperfectly perfect. We were meant to be around each other.”

Perhaps it was meant to be. But Willow Glen still had to go out and beat Leland (7-3, 4-1), and the Rams did so in the methodical fashion they have perfected all season.

On the first play of the second quarter, Chris Amann capped a 12-play drive with a 3-yard touchdown run. Later in the quarter, Willow Glen forced and recovered a fumble on a hook-and-lateral play by Leland.

The Rams didn’t mess around on their next drive. On the first play, quarterback Aiden Akery found Gavin Ferraro on a deep shot down the right sideline, and Ferraro sprinted away for a 53-yard exclamation point right before the half.

“It’s the energy and the dedication,” Akery said. “All of us want it more than the other team, really. And we’re always on each other, trying to fix up every little mistake. We want perfection, and that’s what we’re striving to get.”

Akery, as he has been all year, was the catalyst for Willow Glen’s offense. The fearless junior, in his first year as a starter, ran for 61 yards on 16 carries and completed 12 of 17 passes for 195 yards.

Akery has led Willow Glen in both passing and rushing all season, and the Rams wouldn’t be undefeated without the consistent contributions of their signal-caller each week.

“Everything he’s done this year has been exactly what we needed,” Caballero said. “Honestly, we didn’t know what we had at the beginning of the year. And gosh, boy, has he been plenty for us. He’s been plenty, for sure.”

The championship capped an emotional full-circle return for Caballero. He missed six games last season while serving a suspension for a sideline incident that occurred during Willow Glen’s game at Leland.

“We took the approach of going at it week by week,” Caballero said. “Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that this is how the regular season would end. It’s a rewarding feeling. We talk about things and how to respond to them. And I hope that I was a model for our players. I really do.

“I think that our program is able to get over some adversity, and it was good to see resilient young men be able to do that.”

All is not lost for Leland. Though the Chargers will not hang a banner this season as league champions, they will have a CCS playoff game to look forward to next week.

That was the silver lining coach Kelly King Jr. emphasized to keep his players’ spirits up in the postgame huddle.

“Definitely give them a lot of credit; 10-0, they deserved everything they got,” King said. “They basically came out and kicked our butt. We didn’t play very well, and then they kind of took it to us a little bit.

“A lot of times when you lose a game like this, your season’s over or something like that. We’re in the unique position where we’re playing for a championship, but if you lose, you get to keep playing. Obviously, they’re disappointed, but it’s not the end of the season and we’ll get them refocused for the playoffs.”

Gunn’s championship turnaround season

Two years after going 0-10, the Gunn football team finished the regular season 10-0 Thursday with a 28-7 win over Jefferson.

It was the first 10-0 season for Gunn since 1971. With the win, the Titans captured the Peninsula Athletic League Lake Division championship and advanced to the Central Coast Section playoffs for the first time since 2009.

Quite a turnaround. After that winless season in Dethrick Slocum’s first year as head coach, Gunn went 3-7 a year ago and then this. Ten wins without a loss.

“It’s beyond gratifying, it’s amazing,” said running back Yonatan Smolyar, who was pressed into heavy duty, carrying 29 times for 147 yards and a touchdown. “I was part of the team when it was 0-10, I was part of the team when it was 3-7. We go 10-0 and make playoffs. We made history, first time in 50 years. I’m just proud of every guy here.”

Gunn dominated the first half with its power running game. Quarterback JJ Racz got it started with a 57-yard scoring run on the third play of the game. Sam Dellenbach scored on a 2-yard run and then Smolyar, who had 100 yards rushing by halftime, made it a three-touchdown lead with a 12-yard run.

Racz completed only one pass in the game, but it went for a 34-yard touchdown to Andre Lee in the third quarter as the Titans increased their lead to 28-0.

Jefferson (7-3, 7-1) broke up the shutout when Robert Saulny-Green, a transfer from Serra playing only his second game for the Daly City school, hit Michael Slugher with a 33-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.

Racz, a quarterback wearing number 24, gained 82 yards on nine carries as Gunn ran the ball 54 times for 292 yards

The Titans scored 368 points on the season. Even more impressive, they allowed only 31, a remarkable achievement in an era in which scoring has never been higher.

“One week early in the season, I told them a story about when I was playing high school ball (at Roosevelt High in Fresno),” Slocum said. “We had a great defense then. I told them, the headlines read, ‘The stingiest defense in the league.’ And they just kind of went with it. They come out here and play with a little attitude. These guys are aggressive and understand what we’re trying to do. And I think sometimes teams underestimate us.”

The season came to an end for Jefferson, which started out 0-2, then won seven in a row in PAL Lake play before Thursday’s game.

“Five turnovers, you can’t win like that,” Jefferson coach Imani Stewart said. “We’ve got a lot of our guys coming back. Our offensive line and our defensive line comes back. Our quarterback comes back. The future looks bright for us.”

— Glenn Reeves