Game of the Week: A secondary rivalry rivals regular rivalry

“I’d say this is our true rivalry game. They’re across town, all the kids know each other. The vibe in the stadium, on the road or at home, is electric,” said Woodside head coach Justin Andrews. “It’s hard not (to get caught up in the excitement). My first year here (2011), without knowing much of the history (between the schools), this game was just different. I’m fully into it now.

“This is why you play sports. For games like these.”

This will be the eighth straight season the teams will lock horns. Half of those matchups came during Ocean Division play, while the other four games are non-league games. Sequoia holds a 4-3 advantage in the last seven.

“You can’t ignore (the immensity of this game),” said Sequoia head coach Rob Poulos, who is in his 10th season with the Cherokees. “But it depends on where a kid in from. We draw from San Carlos, Redwood City, East Palo Alto. Some of those guys, you ask them, it’s Carlmont. Other kids will say its Woodside. Other say, ‘M-A. We want M-A again.’”

It’s been quite a start to 2018 for the Cherokees. They opened their season with their annual out-of-town road trip, heading down to the Orange County coast and dropping a 30-13 decision to Newport Harbor.

Now, they go on the road again for a rivalry game.

“It’s a crazy start to the year,” Poulos said.

The good news for Poulos this week is he will know what to expect from Woodside when the Cherokees take the field. Poulos and his staff had no idea what to expect from Newport Harbor because it had a new coach that the school plucked from the junior college ranks and they could get no information on what his style was.

“It was a weird game to play. … Because the head coach came from a JC, we didn’t have any film. I’ve never scheduled a game and never seen what a team does,” Poulos said. “We found one of his JC games online from the previous year. We just had to decide what he would carry with him to a new place. I did latch onto some nuggets.”

Poulos passed that information to his defense and while they did make typical first-game mistakes, the Cherokees’ defense played relatively well. They came up with three interceptions and blocked a punt that McKinley Desbrisay recovered in the end zone. They also stopped the Sailors on fourth down twice.

Now if Sequoia can just get it’s offense going. Implementing a new triple-option, it may take a while for the offense to get comfortable. They had a hard time doing much against Newport Harbor as Jesse Carthy was the team’s leading rusher with 34 yards and a touchdown on nine carries.

“Offensively, we started off with some good [plays] and they made adjustments that really stymied what we were trying to do,” Poulos said. “Southern California football is big-boy football.”

Woodside, on the other hand, is coming off a huge win, 41-6 over South City — it’s first since a 47-46 win over Warriors Oct. 21, 2016. Last year, the Wildcats were 0-9 when it forfeited its final game because of a lack of players.

So far, this year is way different.

“We tried not to make such a big deal (about snapping a 12-game losing streak),” Andrews said. “We’re in a much better situation talent-wise and depth-wise. We played a great game.”

Quarterback Brody Crowley was nearly perfect for the Wildcats last week, hitting on 4 of 5 passes for 111 yards and a touchdown. David Silk returned a kickoff 88 yards for a score, while Nathan Yoho led the ground attack with 73 yards on just eight carries.

“We were able to spread the ball around really well. Five different players scored a touchdown,” Andrews said. “Defensively, we really ran to the ball well. We didn’t give the (South City) offense much space at all. … Our front seven has to be really stout and really aggressive (to be successful against Sequoia).”