South City shows depth in PAL El Camino opener

Senior running back Marcus Mercurio enjoyed a career night. With star running back Elijah Fields inactive, Mercurio rushed for a career-high 165 yards on 20 carries with a touchdown.

“I think I had more of a workload tonight (than ever),” Mercurio said. “I got to show my full potential, and I poured my heart out there.”

Mercurio was far from a one-man show, though. Eight different players rushed the ball for South City, including scoring runs by senior Anthony Jara, senior Darren Miller and senior Derreon Washington.

“I told them at the beginning of the game: ‘Hey, we’re going to have to do this by committee,’” South City head coach Kolone Pua said. “Our main guy isn’t here, so we’re going to try to spread the ball around. ... And it kind of worked out because our line was on fire tonight.”

The barrage of backfielders went right to work. South City saw six different players run the ball on its opening possession en route to a nine-play, 78-yard scoring drive. Senior running back Devon Jackson (eight carries for 30 yards) had a big pickup on third-and-2 from the 41-yard line to move it 12 yards across midfield. Four plays later, Jara danced into the end zone, even though he lost his left shoe before crossing the line of scrimmage, slamming through two defenders to earn a 9-yard score.

“It’s just kind of hard that we’re missing our main guy,” Pua said. “It is what it is. And I just talked to these guys and [said]: ‘We’ve got to come out and compete like he’s here.’ ... And these guys came out, I didn’t think they were going to be that physical. I knew [Los Altos was] going to be physical, but I didn’t think our guys were going to be physical because we have a guy down. And I was really surprised that we came out here and they played for him. ... Everybody was balling out.”

South City used just six linemen in the game. The complement included sophomore center Carlos Cardenas, who was making his varsity debut as a first-week call-up from the junior-varsity squad.

Los Altos (0-1, 1-4) earned just one first down in the half, that coming early in the following drive. But the Warriors snuffed out the possession and got the ball back via punt at their own 9. Two plays later, however, a bad handoff exchange led to a turnover with Los Altos pouncing on a fumble at the 15. South City’s defense held again, and the Eagles settled for a 26-yard field goal to cut it to 7-3.

It stayed that way until late in the first half, when Cisco Lutu intercepted a long third-and-9 pass at the Warriors’ 17. It was the first of six Los Altos turnovers. The Warriors totaled four interceptions, with Francisco Lara, Miller and Cesar Vasquez Moreno also joining the party.

“It’s good because we’re all athletes, so we all play around,” Lutu said. “We do this drill ‘four seconds to the ball’ at practice. ... It’s a good thing, it’s a discipline thing when we all get to the ball and hopefully get the job done.”

South City took over and again went on the march, using eight plays to move 83 yards in under four minutes. Mercurio exploded for three big runs of 21, 14 and 19 yards, before Miller swept around the right side for a 13-yard touchdown run to up the lead to 14-3.

The Warriors had a chance to score again before the half after Lara, a senior linebacker, intercepted a pass in tight 1-on-1 coverage near midfield and rumbled to the Eagles’ 37 with 49.6 seconds to go. But two South City holding penalties stifled the drive, and the Warriors couldn’t put down the snap after lining up for a 47-yard field goal try on the final play of the half.

But the South City defense went on to pitch a shutout in the second half. A fumble recovery by junior Joseph Preciado on s fourth-and-12 strip-sack put the Warriors back on offense at their own 36. It took them 12 plays to move 64 yards for a score, with Washington (eight carries, 59 yards, all in the second half) scoring on a 1-yard run for his first touchdown of the year.

“Our main goal really was let whoever touches the ball get their first touchdown,” Mercurio said.

Los Altos was intercepted downfield by Miller on its next play from scrimmage, and the senior returned it 59 yards to the Eagles’ 1-yard line. Three plays later, Mercurio slammed it in for the game’s final score.

“He wanted the ball like every time,” Pua said of Mercurio’s performance. “I said: ‘No, no!’ We’ve got to spread the ball around because they’re going to key on you.’”

Pua said Fields is due back next week for South City’s Thursday game at Santa Clara. The senior’s absence was not football related, but due to an on-campus altercation. Fields was not directly involved in the altercation, Pua said.

“They had an incident at the school about a week ago and I just think he was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Pua said. “Since he was there, he got pointed out as one of the guys that were involved in whatever happened last week in the altercation.”

The altercation was an on-campus fight Friday, Sept. 27, that led to a 16-year-old student being stabbed by a 14-year-old freshman. The victim was taken to the hospital and treated with non-life threatening injuries, and was released later that day. Pua said Fields was trying to break up the fight.