Cameron Moody and Taylor Mashack combined for five rushing touchdowns and Menlo-Atherton built a 35-0 lead in the first half en route to a 49-14 victory over visiting Salinas in a CCS Division I semifinal game in Atherton Friday afternoon. With the victory, the Bears (9-3) advance to the D-I championship match against the winner of the Serra-Milpitas game, which will be contested Saturday afternoon at Serra. Salinas finishes its season with a 7-5 mark.
Moody, who scored three touchdowns on the afternoon, got the Bears off to a strong start with touchdown runs of 4 and 48 yards in the first 4:29 of the game and the Cowboys were never able to recover. Moody added a 67-yard run in the first minute of the second half as Menlo-Atherton burst out to a 49-7 advantage at the end of the third period. By CCS rules, the fourth quarter was played with a running clock.
Mashack added two long TD runs (85, 53) in the second quarter to boost the lead to 28-0 with 6:30 to play in the second quarter. Quarterback Willy Fonua hit Evan Perkins on a seven-yard TD pass in the second quarter and Tasi Teu scored on a two-yard run late in the third quarter for Menlo-Atherton's other scores.
Salinas, which reached the semifinals with a dramatic come-from-behind 27-26 win over Homestead on a kickoff return TD late in the game, scored on a pair of touchdown passes by QB Matt Leighton, a 14-yarder to Beau Schuler late in the second quarter and a 12-yarder to Jose Ontiveros to conclude the scoring with 10:30 left in the game.
