Serra scores ‘Cool’ victory at Folsom

“The kids were all on the same page and executed the play,” Walsh said.

Serra was up against it late in Friday’s season opener. Trailing 21-13 with 5:25 remaining in the game, the Padres went on a 72-yard drive culminating in an 18-yard touchdown run by senior Chris Yoon, bouncing off left tackle and thundering into the end zone. Needing a two-point conversion to tie it, however, Serra hit a wall by the name of Jasiah Banks, Folsom’s senior linebacker, who dropped the attempt for the equalizer behind the line of scrimmage.

That’s when Serra unleashed the dancers.

With just over two-and-half minutes to play, junior kicker Brody Smith and his 10 fellow Padres never quite lined up for the ensuing kickoff. Instead, Smith affixed the ball to the tee on the left hash mark at the 40-yard line, then turned his back to the ball, and Folsom, as if to huddle with his teammates ambling around him. Then came the shock and awe, as Smith, standing just one yard behind the ball, turned and accelerated into the onside kick with most of his teammates in step.

Smith drove the ball off the turf for a short hop that bit just shy of the 50 before bounding into a cluster of three Folsom players. Seven Padres stormed between them and, after Folsom contacted the ball, Serra senior Teddy Chung pounced. ...

Serra ball!

The onside immortal was prefaced by a big decision made by Walsh and his coaching staff. The Padres’ defense was playing well. Folsom had scored all its points in the first half, but the home team’s shining star, junior quarterback Ryder Lyons, No. 3 on your scorecard, was enough to give Walsh pause about willingly giving the ball back to the Bulldogs.

“There’s two minutes left, it’s like: Why give the ball to No. 3?” Walsh said. “So the thought was: Why kick it to them? Why not try to sneak out an onside kick?”

So, thanks to the “Cool” onside kick, Serra’s offense went to work.

The Padres had already turned some big swings into scores. On the game’s second play from scrimmage, Serra sophomore Malakai Taufoou intercepted a downfield chuck from the dynamic arm of Ryder, setting up a Serra six-play, 77-yard scoring drive — highlighted by a 74-yard chunk off a play-action run by senior running back Nano Latu — with senior Andrew Heneghan scoring three plays later on a quarterback sneak to get the Padres on the board.

On Folsom’s next possession, Serra’s defense pushed the offense backward and harassed Ryder into a strange turnover on downs deep in Bulldogs territory. Spurred by a third-down sack — defensive end Tommy Miller and linebacker Noah Greenspan blitzed to drop Ryder at the 1 — Folsom opted to go for it on fourth-and-long, coming up well short of the line to gain to give the ball back to Serra at the 19. Three plays later, Latu swept around the right side for a 5-yard touchdown run, staking the Padres (due to a missed extra-point attempt) to a 13-0 lead.

Lyons, though, swiftly refocused his offense as the Bulldogs finished the first half with 21 unanswered points. The junior two-way weapon ran 23 yards for one score, and aired out a 14-yard strike to Jameson Powell for another, giving Folsom a 14-13 lead.

Then the Bulldogs delivered some wild theatrics of their own.

In the waning seconds of the half, Ryder dropped a 43-yard bomb into the hands of senior Daymion Rivera — actually, Rivera caught it with his legs, coming down with the jump ball wedged between his knees — setting up an even wilder play to end the half. It was a double-lateral that had the old-school fans wondering if the 1982 Cal Band was going to march onto the field, as Ryder scrambled, then lateraled to no one, only to see senior guard Luke Sorenson scoop it up and lateral to Rivera, who turned upfield and danced to a 15-yard touchdown to make it 21-13 Folsom at the half.

However, it was the leg of Smith, the Padres’ kicker, that would have the final say for “West Side Serra” in this, the program’s most thrilling finish of any game since its 2021 Central Coast Section Division I championship victory 16-12 over St. Francis.

Serra took over near midfield after the sneak-attack onside kick late in the fourth quarter, and moved the chains twice before Heneghan was forced to spike the ball to stop the clock with seconds remaining. Smith lined up for a 38-yard field-goal attempt. To put that distance into perspective, it’s just two yards shy of cracking the available list of the top 28 longest field goals in Serra history.

With the holder Taufoou set up just inside the right hash mark, and a group of Padres on the sideline huddled in a prayer circle on bended knee unable to watch, long snapper Andrew Fadelli delivered the ball for Smith to send the game-winning field goal booming through the uprights.

“The minute it came off his leg, I knew it was pure,” Walsh said.

What a finish for the new-look Serra program, one that graduated a majority of its core roster that paved the way to three straight CIF Open Division State Championship Bowl appearances. This is the third straight year Serra has opened the season against Nor Cal power Folsom. The Padres are now 3-0 in those games, with all of them close — 17-12 in 2022; 21-14 in 2023.

Neither of the past two years, however, felt anything like this one.

“They’re just so happy,” Walsh said. “There’s been so much doubt and insecurity and anxiety, and a lot of things we’re going through because, while we still have the same standards at Serra ... there’s basically a brand new team trying to reach those standards.”

Thank you to Sports Idol Nation for the webcast of this game. The game can be viewed for free at Sports Idol Nation on YouTube. This column will be published in print in the Tuesday, Sept. 3 edition of the Daily Journal.

Terry Bernal is a sports writer for the San Mateo Daily Journal. He can be reached via email at terry@smdailyjournal.com.