Menlo football takes down Cap to stay undefeated

“The deep middle was open for us today,” said Enright, who caught six passes for 114 yards. “We kept getting behind their defenders and under the safeties.”

Freehill escaped a sack and threw a 23-yard touchdown to Enright on a third-and-19 to give Menlo (4-0) a 14-7 lead with 9:30 left in the second quarter, and after a Jamie Forese pick-6, Enright juked a series of defenders as he danced from one sideline to the other for a 55-yard touchdown reception later in the quarter to make it 28-7.

“My receivers make big-time plays and make me look good,” Freehill said with a smile.

The junior quarterback also ran for a pair of 1-yard touchdowns and completed 10 of 17 passes for 150 yards.

Capuchino (3-1) never went away thanks to the talents of its own junior QB, Bobby Gomez. While Lucas Zayac paced the ground attack with 91 yards on 20 carries, Gomez went 23-for-38 for 219 yards and a pair of TDs.

Victor Villarreal’s 1-yard touchdown run cut the Menlo lead to 28-14 going into the half, and after Freehill gave the Knights some breathing room on the first play of the fourth quarter with his second rushing touchdown of the evening, Gomez led a pair of scoring drives to keep the heat on.

“It’s never easy,” Menlo head coach Todd Smith said. “We suited up 23 tonight. Our guys were pretty exhausted. I’m proud of them.”

That 14-play, 74-yard drive that gave Menlo a 35-14 lead featured a pair of heads-up plays by Chuck Wynn, who ran 21 times for 77 yards on the night. After what initially looked like a three-and-out, Wynn fielded a low snap in punt formation and decided to run up the middle, gaining four yards to convert a fourth-and-3, and when a snap that neither he or Freehill expected went into the backfield, Wynn recovered it and managed to fire an incomplete pass in the vicinity of a receiver to avoid an intentional grounding penalty.

Gomez converted third downs with passes to Zayac and Travis Ciardella before finding Issa Keishk for a 6-yard touchdown, and even after Dylan O’Malley’s 34-yard field goal made it 38-21 with 4:33 remaining, Gomez hit Will Hafer (6 catches, 67 yards) for a gain of 30 and found Zayac on a dump-off for a 9-yard touchdown.

Villarreal even recovered the ensuing onside kick, but the Mustangs stalled out on downs in the red zone within the final minute, snuffing out the slim hopes of an improbable comeback.

“That’s a very good football team,” Capuchino head coach Jay Oca said. “Being down big, I don’t think that slowed us down at all.”

The hosts started the night strong as Zayac ran nine times on a 12-play touchdown drive to start the game to take an early 7-0 lead. Rome Iosia returned the opening kickoff 33 yards and Zayac finished it off with a 5-yard run.

Menlo answered before the first quarter ended as Freehill scored from a yard out to finish an 11-play drive in which he completed four passes and ran four times. Capuchino went three-and-out on the following possession after tackles for loss by Lawrence Latu and Tyler Fernandez, and Enright’s first touchdown of the night gave the Knights a lead they’d never relinquish.

Forese’s 25-yard interception return three plays later gave the visitors a two-score lead, and the Mustangs got stopped on downs inside Menlo territory as KC Chavinson rushed Gomez.

“The crowd plays a huge role, so it was great to have them silenced for a little bit,” Enright said of the momentum swing.