Terra Nova football improves to 3-0 with win over Jefferson

By the end of the night, though, the disparity between Terra Nova’s standing as a Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division team proved too much to overcome for Jefferson of the PAL Lake Division, as the Tigers (3-0 overall) rolled to a 34-0 victory to earn their third straight win to start the season.

“We’re feeling pretty good,” Terra Nova senior Corey O’Brien said. “We have low numbers but we’re pretty tight and we all play really hard.”

O’Brien set the tone for the Terra Nova rout, taking the opening kickoff and returning it 77 yards for a touchdown. It’s just the third game O’Brien has played on special teams for kickoff returns, and his first-ever return for a score.

“I just ran patiently, waited for a hole and ran to the daylight,” O’Brien said.

Patience sums up Terra Nova’s night, as Gordon led a tactical and deliberate offense that took its time finding its footing. The Tigers wouldn’t score again until the second quarter, when Gordon and senior receiver Nate Bendo marched for a 12-play, 52-yard scoring drive.

When the drive started, Terra Nova had gained just 21 yards of offense on its previous two possessions. But Gordon and Bendo started chipping away with careful pass completions of 11 and 4 yards, along with a 7-yard pass to Zach Allen, and passes of 3 and 4 yards to O’Brien to reach the red zone. Gordon ultimately scored on a 1-yard QB sneak to give Terra Nova a 14-0 lead.

“Especially to establish ourselves in the beginning of games, we have to take what they give us, just get our tempo going, our flow going, and all our rhythm,” Gordon said. “And it worked perfectly throughout the game.”

Gordon finished the night 13 of 18 passing for 121 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Bendo totaled four catches for 75 yards and a score.

“I think we’re getting better,” Terra Nova head coach Jason Piccolotti said. “Our first two games, we learned how to win. But now we’re trying to learn how to stretch our leads and still win. So, today, we were able to do that. And it’s good to have these games coming into the Bay league in two weeks.”

Jefferson (1-1) alternated its quarterbacks. Junior quarterback Tyler Taylor took the start, but the Grizzlies rotated in Camp for a wildcat look. Camp took seven carries for 61 yards. Taylor added 71 total yards — 40 passing and 31 rushing.

“Tough one,” Jefferson head coach Sergio Portela Jr. said of the Grizzlies’ first loss of the season. “We took one on the chin today. It happens. It’s sports. But I think this district rivalry is good overall for both Daly City and Pacifica. So, congratulations to them, but we’ll be back again next year. We’re not ducking anybody.”

On the final play of the first half, however, Jefferson let its last best opportunity to score go by the wayside. The Grizzlies advanced the ball to the Terra Nova 30 with under a minute to go in the half. But when Taylor got dropped for a loss back to the 46 with 20 seconds to go, instead of taking a shot at the end zone, Jefferson opted to not run another play, instead letting the clock run down to zero.

“I wish I could run back (in time),” Portela said. “But we’ve been in situations in the past where, last year against Hillsdale, we tried to score and steal a possession … toward the end of the half and we ended up committing a mistake that ended up biting us. So, that had a little bit to do with it. Also, we felt like we needed to regroup at that point. We honestly didn’t think the game was that lopsided.”

But Terra Nova would tilt the scales toward lopsided in a hurry to start the second half. Two plays into the half, Jefferson fumbled the ball away when Terra Nova defensive back Caleb Catalano pulled off a trifecta by notching a sack, a strip and a fumble recovery on the same play.

Two plays later, Gordon opened up the passing game by hitting Bendo on a sweet 41-yard scoring pass, with Bendo getting behind the secondary and nabbing the throw in stride with two outreached hands to make it 21-0.

“He’s unbelievable,” Gordon said. “He’s a hell of an athlete. We just try to get the ball in his hands as much as we can.”

Miles Palmer (12 carries, 48 yards) added a 5-yard rushing score for the Tigers midway through the third quarter. With 5:10 to go in the fourth, Gordon connected with Dominic Tuiasosopo for a 10-yard scoring pass to close out the night’s scoring.

As the teams shook hands at the 50-yard line following the game, Piccolotti greeted Camp with a hug. Camp played at Terra Nova as a sophomore, having transferred there along with his older brother Jalen from Riordan following his freshman season. Jefferson is his third school in four years.

“He’s a good player,” Piccolotti said. “He’s a great player. He was with us and then he left, so it was kind of hard watching it. But it was OK. We were really close when he was here. So, it was a good moment. Good moment, good kid.”

Portela said it was an emotional game for Camp to play in.

“It meant a lot,” Portela said. “But Dylan is the type of kid that he brings it every time. There were chirps towards the end of the game where their coaches, he said coaches were apparently telling him on the opposite sideline: ‘You should have never left, never left.’ And credit to Dylan, I did hear him at the end of the game — he turned around and told somebody else on the opposing team: ‘I love Jefferson!’

“Something a lot of people don’t know is Dylan actually, when he transferred out of Riordan as a freshman, had applied initially to come to Jefferson,” Portela said. “So, Terra Nova got him, and they got his (older) brother Jalen. So, congratulations. But they did initially apply to Jeff.”