SAN MATEO, Calif. - Friday night’s football game between Half Moon Bay and San Mateo High School was much closer than the score might suggest. While the visiting Cougars did end up winning 26-7, the game was tied until late in the third quarter, with all the action coming from the defense.
Small gain after small gain, the first two quarters were both battles on the line, with the defensive front prevailing. This was not a game of big plays, rather one of chipping away and wearing the other team down.
Led by a freshman tandem at quarterback and running back, the Cougars were finally able to figure out the San Mateo defense with little more than a quarter left to play. Freshman running back Quinn McCauley, who ran for Half Moon Bay's lone score in the first half, pounded away at the Bearcat defensive line until he began to pick up heavy yardage at the end of the game. McCauley finished with over 100 rushing yards, nearly 70 of which came in the second half. His highlights for the night also included the first two high school touchdowns of his young career.
“It was great, my first touchdowns ever in high school football. It just felt great,” said McCauley.
On the other side of the run game, William Bradford picked up a majority of the carries for the Bearcats. Although he never quite found the rhythm that McCauley did, Bradford compiled a solid 35 yards. He also forced Half Moon Bay to focus on blocking the run game, which created space for Anthony Villalobos to catch the only San Mateo touchdown.
A main reason for the lack of offensive stars on the San Mateo side of the ball was that Cougar linebacker Kolby Dare displayed an incredible knack for tackling opponents behind the line of scrimmage. On many of the Bearcats' sweeping outside runs, Dare was right in the thick of things, bringing down ball-carriers for losses.
“I was just playing harder than they were. I was just going in, putting more pressure, getting more physical than them,” Dare said. “They couldn’t handle it.”
Dare even contributed an interception to aid in the Cougars' big push to finish off the game. While this late push was definitely led by the players picking up their game, a change in play calling by head coach Keith Holden also played a large part in the shift.
“We felt like our defense was playing well, but our offense needed to be simplified a little bit,” Holden said.
This simplification provided the boost that Half Moon Bay needed to score close to three times more points in the second half than the first half, as freshman quarterback William Moffitt also got his feet under him while running a varsity offense. The offense played much cleaner and more efficiently than earlier in the game. Overall, Friday night’s game was a hard fought game by both teams, fueled by effective running and even stronger defense.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for San Mateo. (Head coach) Jeff Scheller has been doing this a long time,” Holden said. “He’s got a bunch of tough kids that play hard. I tip my cap to them because they gave us a tough game.”
