Struggles continuing for Lynbrook football

But what do you do when a team can’t even be competitive in the lowest of the now five-division league?

This is the conundrum facing the Lynbrook football program. I never want to condone a school dropping an athletic program because there can be a lot learned through adversity. But when does adversity simply become overwhelming every single week?

Lynbrook athletics has had some success in other sports: the girls’ basketball team won a CCS championship in the truncated, COVID-impacted 2021 season, while the Vikings’ boys’ basketball team captured a 2022 championship. The Vikings have also had a handful of badminton players make CCS doubles championship matches.

But when it comes to football, the Vikings have been out of their depth for most of the last decade.

So far in 2024, Lynbrook is 0-4 and have been outscored 204-7. They have been shut out in its last three games, including a 49-0 loss to Jefferson two weeks ago and then gave up a season-high 62 points to Mills last weekend. This after Mills beat Lynbrook 63-0 in 2023.

Neither Jefferson nor Mills would be considered elite football programs.

But the malaise goes even deeper. The loss to Mills was Lynbrook’s 23-straight defeat since a 2022 season-opening win. But more importantly, the Vikings have rarely been competitive. They were shut out just once in 2022, but last year were blanked in six of their 10 games and haven’t scored any points in three of their four games so far this year.

Over the last nine seasons (I didn’t include the spring 2021 COVID season), Lynbrook is 14-71, is scoring an average of 11.2 and allowing 33.7. I simply don’t know how you take positives away from the those kind of numbers.

The nearest San Mateo County comparisons would be El Camino and Mills. Mills is 34-53 over the same time span, scoring an average of 19.7 points per game, while allowing 27.2. The Colts are 22-66, with an offense producing 13.6 points and a defense allowing 28.6.

But even Mills and El Camino have shown some flashes of success. Mills was in the playoffs as recently as 2019, while El Camino was 7-3 just two years ago.

Maybe this is just one of those down cycles for Lynbrook. The Vikings were 5-5 playing in the SCVAL’s El Camino Division in 2016 and were 4-6 in 2021. Maybe the program will get an influx of talent in the next couple of years that will help turn the program around.

But it’s hard to draw talent when the product stinks.

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This weekend, a number of PAL football teams are on byes, with 11 of 18 county teams in action.

But there are some intriguing matchups. The Sacred Heart Prep-Hillsdale game have been one of the most entertaining non-league games on the schedule the last couple of seasons. In 2021, the Knights used a goal-line stand to pull out a 20-13 win and last year, with Hillsdale clinging to a late lead, the Knights got two defensive stands in the final minutes to pull out a 21-14 victory.

Meanwhile, Half Moon Bay and Terra Nova will go on a couple of lengthy road trips to take on opponents who don’t have a lot of history with Peninsula teams. The Cougars will be in Pleasanton Friday night to face Brandon Crawford’s alma mater, Foothill.

The Tigers, meanwhile, will cross one bridge — either the Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate, maybe even the San Mateo Bridge — for a road game at Vallejo.

Meanwhile, Serra opens West Catholic Athletic League play against St. Ignatius in San Francisco Friday night. The Padres had a bye last week after being roughed up by St. John Bosco, 56-16 two weeks prior.

While a lot of emphasis is always placed on the Serra-St. Francis game, thanks to a long Lancers’ winning streak that was snapped in 2006, and the fact the two are usually battling it out for a WCAL title, the Wildcats may be the Padres’ true rival.

A number of Peninsula kids bypass Serra and head to San Francisco and SI for athletics. Throw in the legend of “The Jungle Game” when the school’s basketball teams meet in San Mateo every year, and the game certainly takes on more meaning when SI and Serra play, regardless of the sport.

Nathan Mollat is in his 24th year covering high school sports in San Mateo County for the San Mateo Daily Journal. He can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.