I don't know why I decided to drive to Half Moon Bay on Sunday at the very same time as the Pumpkin Festival, nor why I thought the 49ers might beat the Broncos, but I do know this ...
GATORS ARE WCAL-GOOD: Sacred Heart Prep pummeled Terra Nova 49-28 on Friday night and it was only that close because of the heroics of TN quarterback Anthony Gordon and his cadre of receivers, most notably Jordan Genato.
The Gators led by 28 until Gordon threw three consecutive TD passes to Genato to make it 35-28 with more than nine minutes left. Then SHP coach Pete Lavorato inserted two-way star Ben Burr-Kirven on offense and it was game, set, match.
Burr-Kirven, who only saw time on defense until the final nine minutes, had 143 yards on four carries and broke loose for TD runs of 47 and 80 yards. The Gators were already 5-0 with wins against the likes of Leland (32-20), Riordan (14-7) and Salinas (27-21) -- add a monster like Burr-Kirven to their defense and that mistake-free offense and they're a WCAL-quality team.
TN coach Tim Adams was impressed.
"I saw a a very good football team over there that just physically dominated us," he said. "They controlled the line of scrimmage and were very, very good. We couldn't stop the run."
Said SHP offensive line coach Matt Moran: "We were efficient and our running backs ran hard. I don't know how many guys touched it, but about five or six. It was a good win against a very solid Terra Nova team. We still never beat (former TN coach) Bill Gray, but it was nice to get a win and a league win."
How good are the Gators? Pretty darn good -- at least worthy of the No. 9 CCS ranking they received this week from Prep2Prep and No. 21 spot in the Bay Area from CalHiSports. They'll be a player again when the post-season arrives.
IT WASN'T TOO TOASTY: Pioneer coach Perry, earlier in the season, was hoping for some cool, Autumn-like weather Saturday when his team took on host Santa Teresa in a day game. Apparently the temperature was to Perry's liking as his Mustangs rolled 21-3.
"It was warmer than I thought, but not the usual 100 degrees," Perry said with a laugh.
Pioneer quarterback Zach Silva threw for more than 200 yards and three touchdowns -- two to Jordan Gulizia -- and strong safety Tyler Hammel shined on defense with two sacks, a fumble recovery and an interception.
It was Hammel's first action on defense in a few weeks due to what Perry called a "coach's decision." Sounds like he'll be a nice addition to the Mustang stopper unit.
Pioneer (5-1, 3-0) and Oak Grove (3-3, 3-0) are tied for the top spot in the BVAL-Mt. Hamilton and will meet at 7 p.m. November 14.
BISHOP WILL DO NICELY: Hunter Bishop, the much-discussed transfer quarterback from St. Francis, did not make anyone forget Tom Bardy in his Serra debut two weeks ago, throwing for less than 40 yards in a hard-fought win against S.I. He tossed a few interceptions against the Wildcats and missed some open receivers streaking alone toward the goal line other times. How would he do in an even more pressurized situation, against his old schoolmates from St. Francis in battle for first place?
Turns out pretty well. Bishop, with Serra's running game sputtering, completed 14 of 22 passes for 163 yards as the Padres won their fourth straight game. Trailing 2-0 heading into the fourth quarter, Bishop stuck a nice third-down pass into a tight window for a first down in the red zone. He also dropped in a gem of a 43-yard pass to Rory Uniake to set up Serra's second score.
"The first game was tough, it was homecoming, I had a lot of emotions going through my head," Bishop told the San Mateo Times. "I felt a lot more comfortable today."
Serra (4-2, 3-0) hosts Riordan on Saturday. Meantime the four 2-1 teams -- Bellarmine, Valley Christian, St. Francis and Mitty -- all play each other Friday night with VC at St. Francis and Bellarmine at Mitty.
IT'S HENEGHAN ALL OVER AGAIN: Terra Nova quarterback Anthony Gordon needs a scholy. Gordon zinged accurate passes all over the place and into some tight windows in completing 27 of 38 for 330 yards and four touchdowns.
"Great player," Lavorato said. " Un-freakin'-believable. We had great coverage. There were very few passes where there wasn't somebody within a foot of the receiver. It was crazy."
The Tiger senior -- reminiscent of Menlo's Jack Heneghan last season -- did not have a scholarship offer as of Wednesday night when I spoke to him. But that could change soon if Gordon continues to play as he did against the Gators.
Heneghan was a bigger, but not quite as nimble version of Gordon who was similarly frustrated with the lack of interest last season before committing to Dartmouth (which doesn't give athletic scholarships) where he's now playing.
"He's one of the best I've seen in a while," Pioneer coach Eric Perry said of Gordon. "He can throw the ball."
YES, YES, YES HE CAN :Leland coach Jake Shaughnessy needs to buy quarterback Kevin Cance a soda or something this week, if that's not a violation of CCS rules (I'll have Steve Filios check on it).
Cance had scoring runs of 1, 2, 7 and 3 runs and a scoring toss of 59 yards as Leland (4-2, 1-1) defeated Piedmont Hills 49-41 in a wild BVAL-Mt. Hamilton game. Even with 49 points the Chargers needed a fumble recover with 33.9 seconds left to secure the victory.
CAN YOU BE PERFECT ... APPARENTLY: Westmont, Mt. Pleasant and Branham may not be South San Francisco nor Sequoia of the 1960s, but they're piling up the victories.
Westmont (6-0, 3-0) defeated Lincoln 31-14 on Friday night and Mt. Pleasant (6-0, 3-0) topped Overfelt 37-26 as the Santa Clara Valley teams ran their record to a combined 12-0. Take that, Gary Beban (Google it, kids).
Jakob Good, living up to his surname, had TD runs of 20, 5, 5 and 40 yards for Westmont which is eyeing a perfect BVAL-Santa Teresa season and, in fact, an unblemished regular season. It was the first league loss for Lincoln (2-3, 1-1).
At Overfelt, Mt. Pleasant scored in every quarter, led by Micah Lane who had a 90-yard scoring run and an 80-yard kickoff return for a score. Nobody is saying the Cardinals are a mid-1960s version of South City with Greg Jones (again, Google it), but 6-0 is 6-0.
Meantime all Branham does too is win. The Bruins (6-0, 3-0) defeated Andrew Hill 49-6 behind two scoring tosses from Luke Morin to Sean McPherson.
THEY CAN KICK, TOO: The placekickers/punters in last Saturday's Mitty at St. Ignatius football game -- Mitty's Kris Bubic and SI's Andrew Ferrero -- are two-sport stars who also excel in baseball, noted Mitty baseball coach Bill Hutton.
Mitty's Bubic had a 28-yard field goal in the Monarchs' 17-14 victory against the Wildcats and has made 2 of 4 for the season with a long of 48 yards and averages 35.3 yards per punt with a long of 53. He plays baseball left-handed but kicks wiith his right foot.
Bubic was Prep2Prep's Junior of the Year in baseball as he went 8-2 on the mound with two saves and a 0.89 earned run average. He also hit .342 and pitched for Team USA at the Tournament of Stars in Cary, N.C. and at the prestigious Area Code Games in Long Beach. He's a Stanford commit.
"Good as it gets for a high school kid," Hutton said.
Ferrero went 5-3 on the mound with a 2.30 ERA last season for SI with one save. In football he's made 6 of 11 field goal attempts with a long of 36 and also has 20 touchbacks on kickoffs. He punts for the team as well, averaging 44.3 yards per punt, with eight punts placed within the 20-yard line and a long of 59 yards.
CALLERO TO COCHRANE HAS A RING: Valley Christian defeated Riordan 33-7 on Saturday up in The City. But the 19-yard Callero to Cochrane TD pass for the Crusaders made me smile.
I've spoken of Riordan two-way standout Jake Cochrane before. His dad, Mike, played flag football for me in San Bruno, real football for College of San Mateo and is now a San Francisco firefighter.
Raul Callero is the step-son of Clifford Callero, who was the adopted son of the late Mike "Red" Callero, a loyal Riordan grad, who died five years ago of a Melanoma.
"It was a sad time," said former El Camino baseball coach Carlos Roman who played for Mike at Mater De La Rosa School in South City. "He lasted 13 months after he was diagnosed. He was 59."
Back in the day when I was buying uniforms for my playground kids at the old Doherty and Dunne Sporting Goods, Mike Callero took the orders. Big Red was always good for a laugh and an area sports tidbit. Roman worked there too and watched Callero and Steve Sampson "heat press" the white numbers and letters onto the actual San Francisco 49er jerseys used in the games.
"To tell you how primitive it was, Chico Norton was the 49er equipment manager and he'd call up and tell us what he needed," Roman said. "One day he called and said 'We need No. 74 with Dean on the back' (the great Fred Dean of the Chargers) and so we knew before anyone the 49ers were getting Dean and we were all high-fiving each other."
Those were the days. I'll have my eye on young Cochrane and Raul Callero this Saturday when Riordan visits Serra.
