SAN JOSE, CA - They celebrated a stadium dedication Friday night at Mitty, but in the end it was rival Bellarmine reveling over a 20-17 victory.
The win moved the Bells and Valley Christian (overtime winners against St. Francis) to within one-half game of Serra in the WCAL race. The Padres (4-2, 3-0) are scheduled to host Riordan today.
Friday belonged to the Bells (6-1, 3-1) as senior running back Anthony Guttadauro took a third-and-three handoff on a counter around the right side and sprinted 52 yards for a score to put Bellarmine ahead 20-9 with 1:44 left in the game. It was the pivotal play in a hard-fought Bell victory.
Guttadauro spoke of it after he and teammate Kyle Macauley got the full GetSportsFocus interview treatment after the game.
"We just needed that three yards and I knew the ball was coming to me," said Guttadauro, who rushed for 137 yards and one score. "I just lowered my shoulder and got great blocking and I saw open field and ran as hard as I could. We needed to score that touchdown. (The counter) worked a couple of times earlier in the game and it was a great call by coach (Mike) Janda."
Said Janda: "We had been running the basic toss and we took a chance with the counter and ran away from the flow. You just dial the number and sometimes they're home and sometimes they're not."
Connection made.
Down 11, Mitty (4-3, 2-2) still made it interesting. It went 66 yards on six plays, capped by Brett Foley's 11-yard pass to Dakari Monroe in the right corner of the end zone with 57.2 seconds left. Foley's conversion run made it 20-17 and set up a possible dramatic finish -- until the Bells' Antonio Garcia recovered the ensuing onside kick.
The victory improved Bellarmine to 8-3-1 against Mitty since 2004, including three wins on Mitty's campus.
Bell fans were all fired up to get the victory on Mitty's new artificial turf -- the Monarchs' once-yearly football game on their campus. Justin Lum of GetSportsFocus interviewed both Guttadauro and Macauley afterward and handed out T-shirts as Bell players and students roared their approval.
Macauley looked like a goat early in the fourth quarter when he fumbled near midfield with his team leading 14-9 and David De La Roche recovered it for Mitty. But two plays later No. 5 intercepted a Foley pass on the Bell 8 with 8:24 left.
"It was a great feeling," said Macauley who also rushed for 93 yards and one TD on five carries. "I knew I had to make a play so we could ice the clock. Our corner Guttadauro had great coverage and I just read the quarterback."
The Bells maintained that slim cushion until Guttadauro's mad dash to the end zone late in the game.
Bellarmine's victory avenged a 34-7 loss to Mitty last season at San Jose City College. That and Friday night's big crowd and stadium dedication ignited the Bells, Macauley said.
"It was great," he said. "There was a lot of energy. It just gave us more motivation. They got us last year and we came back and got them this year."
Bellarmine served notice on its first possession it wouldn't be a patsy. The Bells, out of their efficient double-wing offense, drove 75 yards on nine running plays to score at 4:28 of the first quarter on a 9-yard run by Garcia.
Kris Bubic made a 31-yard field goal for Mitty to make it 7-3 early in the second quarter. But the Bells responded with Macauley's 68-yard ramble around the left side on a reverse that stunned the partisan Monarch crowd and upped the Bell lead to 11 with 9:12 left in the first half. Macauley appeared stopped on the play, but broke out of a scrum and sprinted to the end zone.
Stymied for most of the first half, Mitty finally got moving before the break with a 14-play drive resulting in Foley's 1-yard sneak for a score with 18.9 seconds left. The drive was aided by a rough-the-passer penalty and another 15-yarder for a blow to the head on Monroe after he caught a short pass.
Mitty appeared poised to take the lead on its first possession of the second half, driving to the Bell 5 where it faced a third-and-one. But a running play lost two yards and then Bubic, attempting a short field goal, was tackled short of the first down after the center snap went awry and he tried to run for it.
After the tough loss, Mitty defensive end Nico McMurray and a teammate languished for a long time after the game on a bench inside the stadium, pondering the loss.
"The first half we came out soft and we knew after we gave up those first points it was going to come back and bite us in the (rear) and it did," McMurray said. "We can't give up an early 14 points to teams and then decide to come back."
Though Mitty is likely out of the title chase now, it should be motivated for Friday's game at Foothill College against first-place Serra -- the team that handed the Monarchs' their only two losses last season, including one in the CCS Open title game.
"I think this is just going to fuel us to want to beat them even more," McMurray said.
Derek Bauerle led Mitty on the ground with 80 yards on 13 carries and Foley passed for 80 yards and ran for 60.
Bellarmine meets Riordan on Friday night at SJCC.
