Sequoia (4-0) pulled off another victory Friday night, this one against the new Bay division members, Half Moon Bay (1-4), 28-6.
The Cherokees fell to Half Moon Bay last season.
“This is why we played them,” Sequoia coach Rob Poulos said. “I didn’t want to go out, play them once, lose to them, and then have them move off to the Bay (Division). I wanted to do this again and if they beat us twice, I’d tip my hat to them. But I wasn’t going to let it go with one game.”
The Cherokees led 7-0 at halftime and extended their lead in the fourth quarter to 28 when junior running back Dylan Anderson broke free and ran 81 yards for a touchdown with 6:25 left to play.
“They beat us pretty bad last year. It was good to get them back,” Anderson said.
“Dylan’s really stepping it up this year,” Sequoia quarterback Mikey Taylor said. “He’s (helping) our offense score a lot.”
Sequoia’s defense held Half Moon Bay multiple times in the red zone. The Cougars only broke through once, on a 29-yard run by Daniel Welch with 4:36 left to play.
“Defensively, we got stops inside the 10. That was a huge momentum killer,” Poulos said. “They finally had the feeling that they were in a rhythm and then to stop them, that’s a big thing. That’s the entire defense and they all had to do their job. No one kid broke up those plays.”
The Cougars did not stop fighting though. They kept playing with all their heart until the final whistle as carries by running back John Bali helped propel them.
“I thought that Bali ran with a purpose," Poulos said. "He was really impressive. Across the board those guys were so scrappy. They were fighting all the way -- 22 points down, 20 seconds left, they were still trying to dive across.”
Coming off a trip to Idaho and a bye week, the Cherokees could have come out sluggish, but instead they used the extra time to study Half Moon Bay and be as prepared as they could for this rematch.
“(The bye week) gives you a chance to recover, but it is also a chance to come out flat. But we didn’t. They played hard and were scrapping the entire time. There wasn’t any sign of lethargy,” Poulos said. “We had more time to prepare and more time to see patterns. We actually saw them live so getting a chance to actually see them in person always helps.”
The Cherokees look to do the same thing next week as the travel to play South San Francisco (1-3) for the first league game.
“We have a bunch of teams that we lost to last year, so we have to do this again next week and the next week,” Taylor said.
Senior cornerback Zach Tornquist agrees that to succeed in league, the Cherokees can’t let up.
“We’re 4-0," he said. "We’ve got to keep it up.”
