South City rallies for return to postseason

The Warriors (3-2 PAL El Camino, 4-5 overall) entered the game one game back of Los Altos in the El Camino Division, but now draw even with the Eagles in the final league standings while earning the tiebreak hammer by virtue of the head-to-head win — a win that sees South City clinch the PAL El Camino’s second automatic Central Coast Section playoff bid.

“We knew what was the stakes coming into the game,” South City senior Devon Jackson said. “We’ve basically got to win to get it. We lost a couple of games early in the season we should have won. So, we just came out and executed.”

Los Altos (3-2, 3-6), however, put a scare into the Warriors late in the third quarter.

After South City took a 35-7 lead on a 13-yard scoring run by Jackson to cap the opening possession of the second half, Los Altos caught a break. South City junior safety Kingston Williams intercepted a pass at the Warriors’ 7-yard line, but two plays later the Warriors fumbled it away to put the Eagles on offense in the red zone.

After Los Altos scored three plays later on a 7-yard scoring pass from junior Giancarlo Mendoza to senior Gavin Wu, the Eagles manufactured a picture-perfect onside kick for junior Benji Barton use some fancy footwork to recover with a tightrope walk along the sideline.

“That’s the way the game goes,” Los Altos head coach Mark Adams said. “It’s a game of momentum, and we were pretty excited to kick the ball in and get the ball back.”

Taking over at South City’s 40, the Eagles needed five plays to reach the end zone on a 1-yard scoring run by Wu, cutting the score to 35-21 with 11:07 to play.

“We can move the ball pretty well, and we did move the ball really well tonight,” Adams said. “So we thought we could get back in the game. We kind of did.”

It would be Los Altos’ final points of the night, though, as South City’s big-three, non-senior defensive front of junior nose guard Carlos Cardenas, and sophomores Tusimona Tinai and Leonardo Gonzalez Lomeli, stole the show on South City’s Senior Night.

In the early going, it was another non-senior in junior running back Vince Bernal that put the Warriors in the driver’s seat.

Senior quarterback Anthony Howell got the Warriors on the board with an 8-yard touchdown pass to senior Thomas Miller to make it 7-0. Los Altos fired right back, using a 28-yard screen pass from Mendoza to senior Manny Contreras to tie with 5:07 to play in the first.

South City responded with 21 unanswered points to end the first half, needing just one play from scrimmage to regain the lead as Bernal made the corner on a right-side sweep and broke a career-high 59-yard touchdown run.

“It was when I turned the corner and I seen my receiver Thomas Miller, he threw him on the ground, and I just took off from there,” Bernal said.

South City then forced a punt, and turned back upfield for a seven-play, 59-yard scoring drive, aided by back-to-back 15-yard penalties against Lost Altos. Then, in the opening minutes of the second quarter, Howell found junior Cesar Vasquez Moreno over the middle for a 13-yard scoring strike to up the lead to 21-7.

The Warriors went back on the attack when Vasquez Moreno intercepted a long third-down chuck at the South City 28-yard line. After Jackson broke rushed of 32 and 11 yards, sandwiched by a 12-yard keeper by Howell, the Warriors made the end zone on a 7-yard burst off tackle by Jackson to send it to halftime with a 28-7 lead.

Jackson finished with 16 carries for 189 yards and two touchdowns.

“A lot more (of a workload) than last year,” said Jackson, who was a depth piece on a South City team that advanced to the CCS Division V semifinals last season. “I’m getting the ball a lot more. It hurts a little bit, but it’s all good. That’s how I like it.”

Mendoza was Los Altos’ best weapon, going 16-of-31 passing for 118 yards and two touchdowns, but was snake-bit by three interceptions.

In comparison, Howell had a modest 3-of-7 passing night for 29 yards, but two of those completions were for touchdowns. The senior also capped the scoring with a 3-yard rush with 1:09 remaining on the game clock.

It was Howell’s heroics the previous week, however, that put the Warriors in a position to clinch Friday, as the senior totaled four touchdown passes in a 43-0 victory at Gunn-Palo Alto.

“He was amazing,” Bernal said. “I think that was the best I’ve seen him play.”

The road to the postseason has been quite a comeback story for the Warriors, after they dropped back-to-back games against Terra Nova and Santa Clara to fall to 1-2 in league. Both were spirited games, as Terra Nova — the eventual PAL El Camino Division champion — eked out a 14-9 win, Friday, Oct. 10. The following week, South City dropped an overtime thriller 28-27 to Santa Clara.

South City head coach Kolone Pua said the addition of three players at the midseason grading period was a double-edged sword because, though they helped the team down the stretch, they weren’t necessarily up to game speed in rejoining the team prior to the Terra Nova loss.

“We should have beat Terra Nova, but we died out,” Pua said. “And against Santa Clara, we just messed up big time. And we had guys just coming out of making grades that day, and put them in, and we shouldn’t have put them in yet.”

This will mark South City’s third straight CCS postseason appearance, including the CCS Division V championship run in 2023.