San Mateo Bearcats bully Aragon Dons

“That was as complete a game we’ve played this year — so far,” Scheller said.

While the offense is still growing with a number of new pieces, the defense for San Mateo (2-1 overall) is in midseason form. In the first three quarters in which the Bearcats’ starting defense was in the game, they limited Aragon (2-1) to just 111 yards of offense.

The Dons did manage to rack up 131 yards in the fourth quarter and score a meaningless touchdown against the San Mateo backups, but the game had already been well decided by then.

In addition to shutting down the Aragon offense, the San Mateo defense also came up with four turnovers. Defensive lineman Jesus Olivas had the game of his life, recovering three fumbles, all which led to touchdowns. Bearcats free safety, Hamilton Pitney, thwarted an Aragon scoring threat with an interception at his own 17.

“Defense played lights out,” Scheller said.

With the defense denying the Dons at every turn, the San Mateo offense didn’t need to be its numbing, triple-option self. The Bearcats did not have one of their patented long, clock-consuming drives. Instead, they took what the Aragon defense was giving them.

More precisely, they took what the Dons’ offense was giving them. Aragon was forced to punt on its opening possession, but a 7-yard punt set up San Mateo at the Dons’ 33-yard line. Four plays took the Bearcats down to the 9-yard line before senior fullback Yianni Fitzgerald bulled his way into the end zone. He looked stopped around the 5-yard line, but kept his legs churning and eventually broke into the end zone. His extra point made it 7-0.

It was one of only four carries for Fitzgerald, who finished with 25 yards. This after not getting a carry in last week’s 42-28 loss to Menlo School. Scheller said he wanted to get Fitzgerald more touches this week and at this point, Fitzgerald is a luxury that Scheller may simply keep in his back pocket until he absolutely needs his battering ram.

That’s because the Bearcats’ other two main rushing options — fullback Jovani Hernandez Cruz and junior quarterback Lukas Fitzgerald — can inflict their own damage. Hernandez Cruz had eight of his 12 carries in the first half, rushing for 58 yards in the first two quarters and ending the night with 66.

All told, the Bearcats rushed for more than 300 yards as a team for the third time this season, finishing with 322 against the Dons.

Hernandez Cruz had the first big offensive play of the night for San Mateo. Two plays after Olivas recovered his first fumble to set the Bearcats up at the Dons’ 36, Hernandez Cruz ripped off a 35-yard run, with Lukas Fitzgerald punching it into the end zone from a yard out to put the Dons up 14-0 with two minutes left in the first quarter.

The Aragon defense, to its credit, kept the Dons in the game as they did a good job of limiting San Mateo in the second quarter. The Don held the Bearcats to a 22-yard Yianni Fitzgerald field goal to end the first half, with Aragon down just 17-0.

But in the third quarter, Lukas Fitzgerald took over. After rushing eight times for 52 yards in the first two quarters, he ran the ball 10 times in the third quarter for 148 yards as he finished with 200 yards rushing and three scores on 18 carries.

“We have sets (for Lukas Fitzgerald) where he doesn’t have to read (the defense) and let him go,” Scheller said.

On the first play of the second half, Lukas Fitzgerald bolted 44 yards to the Aragon 33. Two plays later, he had a 22-yard run to the 7 and two more plays later, punched it into the end zone from two yards out to put the Bearcats’ up 24-0.

Olivas’ third fumble recovery of the night gave the Bearcats the ball at the Aragon 17. On second-and-9, Lukas Fitzgerald took the snap, kept it himself and went around the right side — where it was wide open. He waltzed into the end zone from 16 yards out for the Bearcats final score of the night, with just under five minutes left in the third quarter.

“[Lukas Fitzgerald] is a different guy from the other guys we’ve had,” Scheller said.

Aragon did end up with 242 yards of offense, most of which came through the air. Isaac Martinez got the start at quarterback with an injury to Isaiah Johnson and completed 9 of 18 passes for 111 yards. Sophomore Gabe Wilcox played the fourth quarter and was effective against the Bearcats’ second defense. Wilcox completed 8 of 11 passes for 100 yards and a 3-yard score to Nick Mazzola near the front right pylon.

Mazzola, who caught eight passes for 190 yards in last week’s win over Oak Grove, finished Friday night with 10 catches for 113 yards — but a lot of that came in garbage time. Tight Nick Castroviejo had four catches for 57 yards, all in the first half.

“Aragon did a good job of trying to force us to do something different,” Scheller said. “(But) we imposed our will on Aragon.”