Warming up those Friday night lights

“The atmosphere is always great,” Scots head coach Eric Rado said. “Our cheer squad is great and people are excited for the season. Our home atmosphere, we get that from a lot of teams, it’s like: ‘Hey, you guys are rockin’.’ So, it’s always fun.”

The Burlingame Panthers, however, were not gracious visitors, as head coach John Philipopoulos’ squad ran roughshod over Carlmont from the outset.

This was to be expected. The pairing was a rematch of the 2018 Central Coast Section Division IV championship game — the last time Carlmont advanced to the postseason — when Burlingame triumphed 38-0. Since then, Burlingame has solidified itself in a power league, and is readying to play its fifth straight season in the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division, an “A” league, while Carlmont will play in the “B” league PAL El Camino Division.

“They’re an ‘A’ league team and you get a chance to play somebody else, and see what it needs to be and where you’re at,” Rado said, “So, when we played them in the section championship in 2018, that’s kind of the bar we set for ourselves. And Coach Philipopoulos does a good job.”

Fronted by a trio of quarterbacks — senior Eddie Gill, and juniors Luke Levitt and Mikey Vargas — the Panthers scored early and often. It’s a new rotation under center, but a continuation of last year’s strong finish, when Burlingame won two of its final three regular-season games too eek its way to its 13th straight postseason berth.

The Panthers mounted touchdown drives with all three quarterbacks running the offense. In terms of how many scores Burlingame totaled, everyone on the sideline seemed to lose count.

“I don’t know, we weren’t counting,” Philipopoulos said. “But I felt pretty good how we played on the offensive side of the ball. We were pretty consistent. I thought the offensive line played well, the backs ran well. Yes, I feel pretty good about that for the most part.”

The left-handed Levitt connected for two TD passes, hitting senior Wade Kingbury over the middle, with the receiver breaking several tackles to reach the end zone. Junior tight end Jack Flanzer was Levitt’s other scoring target on a red-zone rollout allowing the southpaw to showcase his strong-side mobility and a feel for throwing on the run.

“It was awesome being out here,” Levitt said. “The teams were ready to practice, the captains made sure that the intensity was good and that we came out here with fire, and we showed that. There’s still things to work on, but we were happy with the intensity.”

Gill is slated to start under center this coming Friday, Aug. 25 when Burlingame hosts Capuchino in non-league action.

“We feel like we’ve got a lot of good depth there, and it will be a nice little one-two punch,” Philipopoulos said.

Carlmont junior quarterback Carlo Campobello has seen more varsity action than all the other quarterbacks from both teams combined after last year’s emergency start last year in Week 2 against Los Altos. Campobello was thrust into action, completing four passes for 81 yards in the 17-14 win in 2022 non-league play, a win fronted mainly by the Scots’ ground game.

Junior quarterback Johnny Dunne also saw some reps Friday.

“They both showed good things,” Rado said. “Carlo has a little more experience going for him. Johnny has a better arm, but Carlo leads all the stuff, all the warmups.”

Some other scrimmages around the PAL featured San Mateo at the King’s Academy-Sunnyvale; El Camino hosting a three-team format with Jefferson and Oakland; and Half Moon Bay hosting a three-team format with Bellarmine and Sacred Heart Prep.