Bearcats bury Burlingame

That makes two straight wins for San Mateo (8-2 overall) in the series that started in 1927. It’s the first time the Bearcats have won back-to-back Little Big Games since the 1985 and 1986 seasons.

“I can’t comprehend it,” said San Mateo head coach Jeff Scheller.

While San Mateo had 359 yards of offense, all on the ground, it was a defensive stand at the end of the first half that swung the momentum in the Bearcats’ favor. After Fitzgerald gave the Bearcats a 14-3 lead after bulling his way into the end zone from 4 yards out, Burlingame (6-4) looked poised to cut the deficit as the Panthers took the ensuing kickoff and marched from their own 26 down to the San Mateo 1-yard line with just over a minute left in the half, after it appeared Jake Flood had gotten into the end zone for a 23-yard scoring strike from quarterback Luke Levitt.

But Flood was ruled out of bounds at the 1, which proved to be huge. It seemed it was inevitable the Panthers would score, but the Bearcats defense had other ideas. They stuffed two running plays for no gain and on third down, the Panthers were lucky to fall on a fumbled snap.

But with no timeouts and the clock ticking down, Burlingame quickly snapped the ball, with Levitt trying to go around the left end for the score.

But San Mateo’s Logan Davis chased Levitt, dragging him down for a 3-yard loss on the final play of the half and the Bearcats went into break with its 14-3 lead intact and getting the ball to start the third quarter.

“That defensive stop was huge,” Fitzgerald said. “Without that stop, it’s a different game.”

While Burlingame head coach John Philipopoulos wasn’t willing to say that sequence was the difference in the game, it certainly went a long way in dealing the Panthers the loss.

“It was one of the turning points,” Philipopoulos said. “It was disappointing we couldn’t punch it in.

“What was really disappointing was three broken plays over four plays.”

While San Mateo certainly had the momentum, Scheller wasn’t sure his team could maintain it following the always lengthy halftime show the Little Big Game features. The cheerleaders, dance squads and marching bands for both teams necessitate a 30-minute break — about twice as long as a normal halftime.

“It’s definitely demoralizing for a team (not to score in that situation) and it’s all about momentum,” Scheller said. “But that long halftime doesn’t help.”

San Mateo, however, did not skip a beat. The Bearcats took the second-half kickoff and did what they do — go on a long, time-consuming drive that ended in a score.

And that’s when Fitzgerald really flexed his muscles, who had only 59 yards at the break. Starting at their own 24, the Bearcats marched 76 yards on 13 plays, taking nearly eight minutes off the clock.

After a 3-yard Cam Palma run, Fitzgerald broke off runs of 18 and 12 yards. He gained 73 yards on the drive, one that saw the Bearcats convert a fourth-and-5 on a James Coudsi toss and overcoming a holding call.

Fitzgerald capped the drive with a 10-yard burst for a 21-3 lead and when the Bearcats’ defense forced a three-and-out on the Panthers’ first possession, they were in the driver’s seat.

That’s because four plays after Burlingame’s punt, Fitzgerald put the game away with a 52-yard score right up the middle for a 28-3 lead with 13 seconds left in the third quarter.

“I feel like we prepared for this game all season,” Fitzgerald said, who missed the first couple games this season with injury. “Our third quarters haven’t been the best this season. Once we put it in the end zone, I knew it was over.”

Burlingame responded by putting together its only touchdown drive of the game, with Levitt guiding the Panthers 74 yards on nine plays, hitting Will Armstrong with a 20-yard scoring pass.

But the Bearcats answered right back. They recovered an onside kick and quarterback Palma capped the drive with a 7-yard keeper — untouched — to put San Mateo up 35-10 with just under seven minutes to play.

While San Mateo was humming over the final three quarters, the first 12 minutes were ones the Bearcats would like to forget. They got a huge early opportunity when Burlingame fumbled the ball on the third play of the game, with Palma scooping it for San Mateo.

The Bearcats proceeded to go backward and were forced to punt and Burlingame took advantage. Starting at their own 17, the Panthers did a good job mixing the pass and run, with a 12-yard run on a counter from Luke Dimech and a 23-yard gain from Lucas Kirk taking the ball down to the San Mateo 18.

But the Bearcats made their stand and the Panthers settled for a 36-yard field goal from Dylan Rossen. San Mateo then went three-and-out and ended up finishing with just 5 yards of offense in the opening quarter.

“We started off really shaky,” Scheller said.

But the defense pretty much held Burlingame in check long enough for the the Bearcats offense to flush the butterflies. And while it was Fitzgerald that did the bulk of the work, it was a brilliant run from Coudsi that gave the Bearcats the lead for good. On first down from the Burlingame 42, Coudsi took an inside handoff on a counter, picked up a kickout block and raced 42 yards for the score.

That seem to loosen up the Burlingame defense for Fitzgerald to do the bulk of his damage between the tackles.

“[The win] means everything,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s definitely different celebrating in person with my teammates.

“It’s a new era for San Mateo (football).”

Burlingame finished with 263 yards of offense after having 188 at halftime.

Said Philipopoulos: “That was a tough one. All the credit to San Mateo High School.”