Carlmont football survives Santa Clara

Friday against visiting Santa Clara, the roles were reversed for Carlmont. The Scots defense stifled the Bruins for most of the game, but the Carlmont offense kept shooting itself in the foot. The Scots needed a late touchdown to finally put Santa Clara away, posting a 17-7 win in Belmont Friday night.

“We’ll take it. We wanted to be 3-1,” said Carlmont head coach Eric Rado. “We wanted a better defensive performance than last week. That wasn’t Carlmont football (against Half Moon Bay).”

Carlmont led 10-0 at halftime and was nursing a 10-7 lead late in the fourth when the Scots finally put the Bruins away. Carlmont’s Luca Byers-Mora recovered his second fumble of the night to thwart a Santa Clara drive and give the Scots the ball at their own 38 with 8:25 to play.

The Scots proceeded to embark on their longest drive of the second half, with running back John Hanna doing the bulk of the damage. He carried the ball seven times for 37 yards as the Scots moved to the Bruins’ 9-yard line.

There was a scary moment when Hanna had the ball stripped, but the Scots recovered it.

On the next play, quarterback Jack Wiessinger fakes a toss right and rolled back to his left on a boot leg, picking his way through traffic and into the end zone from 10 yards out to put the Scots up 17-7 with 2:43 to play.

“At the end of the game, you give the ball to your senior running back and then you put your trust in your three-year starting quarterback on a boot leg,” Rado said.

Hanna had another big game for Carlmont. He went over the 150-yard rushing mark for the fourth week in a row, finishing with 181 yards on 28 carries.

The Scots’ defense certainly shored things up against Santa Clara. They held Santa Clara (1-3) to just 234 yards of offense — 109 in the first and half and 124 over the final two quarters. They sacked Bruins’ quarterback Matthew Conklin five times and they recovered four fumbles. Nate Wong came up with an late interception for a fifth Santa Clara turnover.

“Our linebackers pursued well,” Rado said. “Our defensive tackles held their own. [Santa Clara is] a big football team.”

Wong’s interception gave the Scots the win in the turnover category — but just barely. Carlmont had a bad habit of putting the ball on the ground Friday, fumbling the ball away three times before a Bruins’ interception led to their only score late in the third quarter.

The third quarter, especially, was one in which both teams seemed intent on keeping the other in the game. Carlmont led 10-0 at halftime and received the second-half kickoff — only to fumble the ball away at its own 25-yard line.

But the Scots’ defense came up big. On first-and-goal at 7, they stripped the Santa Clara ball carrier and it was recovered by Dylan Del Bono — his second recovery of the night.

It was a short reprieve, however, as Carlmont turned the ball back over to the Bruins five plays later.

This time, Santa Clara capitalized. Starting at the Carlmont 48, Santa Clara drove 48 yards on eight plays, with Orlando Lewis scoring from five yards out to cut the Carlmont lead to 10-7.

Carlmont fumbled the ball away on its next possession, but Santa Clara gave it right back, which the Scots cashed in for the final points of the night.

Carlmont did a much better job protecting the ball in the opening two quarters, but just could not keep drives going. The Scots avoided a quick deficit when they stripped the Santa Clara running back and recovered the fumble at their own 8.

On Carlmont’s first drive, the Scots used 12 plays to drive down to the Bruins’ 35 before turning the ball over on downs.

Carlmont stuffed the Bruins on their next drive, but again, turned the ball over on downs.

After forcing a second consecutive punt by Santa Clara, Carlmont drove from its own 32 to the Santa Clara 15, a 32-yard completion from Wiessinger to Byers-Mora being the big play.

Again, the drive stalled and the Scots settled for a 32-yard Conner Cook field goal.

After forcing the Bruins to punt for the third time of the half, the Scots put together their only touchdown drive of the first half. Starting on their 30, the Scots used eight plays to go 70 yards for the score. Trevor Johnson ran for 19 yards on the first play before Wiessinger completed three passes on the drive for 33 yards.

On second-and-goal from the 7, Johnson took a handoff on an inside reverse and went into the end zone for a 10-0 Carlmont lead with 3:18 left in the first half.