Menlo rolls to fourth straight win

Those fans were probably worn out, however, with all the cheering they got to do in the first half. Menlo scored on all seven of its first-half possessions as it built a 38-point by halftime to win 48-10 as the game was played with a running clock for the entirety of the second half.

The Knights become the first team in the Peninsula Athletic League to improve to 4-0 on the season.

“Very pleased,” Menlo head coach Todd Smith said when asked how he thought his team played.

“I was excited and pleased with how we focused.”

Using a hurry-up offense and with quarterback Jack Freehill playing a nearly flawless game, Menlo needed less than two minutes to take a 7-0 lead. The Knights received the opening kickoff and starting at their own 28, needed five plays to go 72 yards, with Freehill hitting Nate Banatao on a rollout to the right for a quick 7-0 lead.

And when Mountain View had trouble holding onto the ball, Menlo was quick to take advantage. The Spartans coughed the ball up on their second play from scrimmage, with Menlo’s Will Farrell falling on it to give the Knights tremendous field position at the Mountain View 45. Six plays later, the Knights were in the end zone again. This time, Freehill took the snap and rolled left before going into scramble mode. He avoided the Mountain View rush and directed traffic until he found Drew Housser in the back corner of the end zone for a 2-yard score and a 14-0 less than five minutes into the game.

It was 21-0 less than 30 seconds later as Menlo’s Liam Widner made a juggling interception on Mountain View’s next play from scrimmage. He took it to the house, but it was called back because of a block-in-the-back penalty on the return, but it merely delayed the inevitable.

After a holding penalty moved the Knights back to the Spartans’ 38-yard line, Menlo went to some razzle-dazzle. The Knights ran the same double-pass play two times in a row. The first time, Freehill took the snap and threw a backward pass to backup quarterback Caleb Cohen, whose attempted throw back to Freehill was knocked down.

A play later, the quarterbacks switched positions. This time, Cohen took the snap and made a backward pass to Freehill, who launched a throw deep down field where Housser latched onto it for a 38-yard scoring strike and a 21-0 lead with 7:04 left in the opening quarter.

“We had the plan coming in that we wanted to jump on them early,” Smith said.

And Freehill wasn’t done. After Mountain View went three-and-out, Menlo embarked on its longest drive of the game. Starting at their 41, the Knights marched 59 yards on eight plays, a drive that bridged the second and third quarters.

When the horn finally sounded to end the first period, Menlo had run 20 plays to just six for Mountain View and had 173 yards of offense, compared to just 21 for the Spartans.

Overcoming a holding and false start penalty, Menlo opened the second quarter with Freehill’s fourth touchdown pass of the half. He hit Chuck Wynn over the middle, who juked a defender and went the rest of the way for a 38-yard score to put Menlo up 28-0.

The Spartans turned the ball over on downs at their own 26 on their next possession and the Knights went right back to work. This time, Freehill did it himself, slithering 15 yards for the score and a 34-0 lead.

Mountain View finally got something positive, as running back Dom Kristof took a handoff off the right side, turned the corner and went 55 yards down the right sideline to get the Spartans on the board with 7:19 to play in the first half.

Kristof finished with 111 yards on 12 carries.

And when Menlo fumbled the ensuing kickoff away, the Spartans seemed to have some life, settling for a 37-yard field goal to close to 34-10.

But the Knights made up for the gaffe with a 83-yard kickoff return for a touchdown from Trevor van der Pyl.

Mountain View’s third turnover of the half set the Knights up for their seventh touchdown of the half, with Merrick Ward slamming into the end zone from a yard out to put Menlo up 48-10 with 16 seconds left in the half.

Needless to say, Freehill was done after that, but he crammed a lot of good play into two quarters. The senior completed his first 11 passes of the game and misfired on only one as he went 12 for 13 for 164 yards and five touchdowns — four passing and one rushing.

“He’s a competitor,” Smith said of Freehill. “He has great field awareness. He can move fast, but keeps his eyes downfield.”

All told, Freehill and Cohen combined to go 14 for 17 for 183 yards.

But the Knights’ running game was just as effective. Led by senior Chuck Wynn, who finished with 60 yards on nine carries, Menlo rushed for 146 yards.

“We ran the counter excellently,” Smith said.

The Knights’ defense, in addition to forcing four turnovers, came up with a pair of sacks and limited the Spartans to just 186 yards of offense.