Carlmont’s newly renovated Bruce Usher Memorial Field experienced its first Gatorade shower on Friday night, but it was the visiting coach who ended up with ice in his shirt.
Led by quarterback Hashall Lal and his bright pink socks, the Mills offense propelled itself to an early first-half lead, and the Vikings let their defense take care of the rest in a 28-13 victory.
With 3:27 left in the second quarter, the Vikings had third-and-long on their own 31. Carlmont brought the pass rush, and Lal found himself being chased down by a lineman in blue. He shook off the tackle attempt and completed a 47-yard pass down the right sideline to his favorite receiver, Victor Beglitsoff.
The completion was a momentum changer for Mills, setting up the team’s third touchdown. And it wasn’t the first time that Lal racked up big yardage on a completion.
Viking receivers blew up the Carlmont secondary in the first half, and Lal capitalized. On the sixth offensive play of the game for Mills, Lal hit Biglitsoff for a 36-yard touchdown, the first score of the game. In the second quarter he had touchdown passes of 25 and 13 yards.
“We were fired up to play tonight, and we executed,” said Lal.
Carlmont brought changes to its offensive plan this week. Quarterbacks Diairea James and Derek Gomez passed more often than they had in previous games.
The Scots gained most of their first-half yards through the air, including a 35-yard touchdown pass from Gomez to wide receiver Matt Stalun.
Carlmont’s offense would have been more effective if it wasn't for the tremendous Viking defensive performance.
The defense made big plays when it counted, coming up with fourth-down stops and forcing tackles for losses. After Lal threw his third touchdown, Carlmont was only able to have the ball for about one minute until it was intercepted by Mills defensive back Conor Hidalgo on the Scot’s 20 yard line.
“We (the secondary) just dropped in and got ourselves in position to make big plays when they counted,” said Hidalgo.
Both teams played sluggishly in the second half. At the start of the final 24 minutes, Carlmont forced a fumble on defense, recovered it, and took the ball down to the 4-yard line from which Yancey Portis scored.
Carlmont ran more often in the second half. This caught Mills by surprise and confused the defense. However, Portis’ third-quarter touchdown was the last score of the game.
“Carlmont brought their game in the second half, sticking to their basic plays that they’re used to running," said Mills coach Packy Moss. "We, on the other hand, started to relax because of our big lead and because penalties hurt us."
Spirits waned for Carlmont in the second half. With a significant decrease in attendance on Friday, the only group who seemed to be engaged was the band.
“Our performance in the first half was lackluster. We need to get more pumped up and get the fire going,” Carlmont assistant coach Gio Tenario said.
Mills’ victory was only the eighth in school history in football against the Scots.
Carlmont (1-5) will try to re-energize next Friday night at 7 p.m. in its homecoming game against El Camino (3-2). Mills (3-2-1) will host San Mateo (2-3) next Friday at 7 p.m.
