Woodside Wildcats choke out Half Moon Bay

So what was the mood in the Woodside locker room at halftime?

“We acknowledged the role we played being down 14-7,” said Woodside head coach Justin Andrews, referencing a pair of first-half fumbles.

“We needed to clean up some stuff.”

But that’s another benefit of having a stout defense — it gives the offense some time to find a rhythm. Which is what happened in the second half. The Wildcats defense completely shut down Half Moon Bay in the final two quarters, while the offense finally started clicking, scoring three times in the second half to pull out a 28-14 victory.

“When you have a defense to lean on, it definitely gives you time to figure it out (offensively),” Andrews said.

Woodside (2-0 PAL Ocean, 7-0 overall) held Half Moon Bay (1-2, 4-3) to just 164 yards of offense — 130 of which came in the first half and of those, 80 came on the first drive of the game.

The Wildcats, after giving up eight first downs in the first half, allowed only one during the run of play in the second half, with two other first downs coming via Woodside penalties as they held the Cougars to just 34 yards in the second.

But that first drive was vintage Half Moon Bay. Taking the opening kickoff and starting at their own 20, the Cougars picked up an initial first down before Woodside buckled down and forced Half Moon Bay into punt formation.

But instead of punting it away, Cougars punter Paxton Holden, who is also the team’s starting quarterback, connected with Maverick Johnson, who bolted 21 yards down to the Woodside 43 to keep the drive alive.

And the Cougars continued to march. They again converted on fourth down by the slimmest of margins. A measurement was taken and the referee got down on a knee to make sure it was a first down.

Three plays later, the Cougars lined up in their scrum package, but used a play-action pass, with Holden hitting Chester Collins for a 7-yard touchdown and a 7-0 Half Moon Bay lead. The Cougars went 80 yards on 18 plays, using more than nine minutes of the first-quarter clock.

“It was that fake punt that gave them momentum,” Andrews said.

Woodside recovered the Cougars’ onside kick attempt and on the Wildcats’ first drive, they were the complete opposite of Half Moon Bay’s opening drive. Starting at their own 45, Woodside needed just seven plays and less than two minutes to drive 55 yards to tie the score on a James Yauch 2-yard plunge with under a minute left in the opening quarter.

From there, the defenses took over. The Cougars appeared to have hit the Wildcats over the top for a 53-yard touchdown pass-and-catch, but the score was waved off because of a holding penalty when led to an eventual Half Moon Bay punt.

That set off a sequence in which the teams combined for three fumbles over the next eight plays. Woodside fumbled the ball away on the second play after the punt, with Half Moon Bay’s Collins falling on the loose ball at the Wildcats’ 30-yard line.

But the Cougars gave it right back on the next play, with Holden getting the ball stripped and recovered by Woodside’s Max Hua at his own 20.

But the Wildcats went backward from there, before seeing the game’s momentum flip to the Half Moon Bay sideline. Facing third-and-long from their own 9, Cougars quarterback Charlie Dalrymple took the snap and dropped back, but dropped the ball with Half Moon Bay’s Johnson falling on the ball in the end zone to put Half Moon Bay up 14-7 with just over five minutes left in the second quarter.

Woodside grabbed the momentum back just before halftime. After the first of two Isaac Pech’s sack gave the Wildcats to ball back with one second left in the first half, they ran a reverse to Grady Furtado, who looked like he might score from 48 yards out, but was taken down at the 6-yard line to preserve the Cougars’ lead at the break.

“We had early success, then we stagnated,” Andrews said.

In the second half, the Woodside offense finally figured it out. After being held to just 57 yards rushing and 97 yards of offense, the Wildcats ran for 140 yards in the second half, led by Alex Valencia.

Valencia was replacing an injured Evan Frampton and got off to inauspicious start, fumbling the ball on his first carry of the game. But he finally settled in and after rushing for just 9 yards in the first half, added 97 in the second to finish with 106 yards on 21 carries.

“I thought he handled himself well,” Andrews said of Valencia’s performance. “He made big runs there. … We started emphasizing our misdirection a little bit (more in the second half).”

The Wildcats finished with 85 yards passing, but two of their 12 completions went for scores. After Woodside opened the third quarter with a fumble recovered by Half Moon Bay’s Fernando Carrillo, the Woodside defense forced the Cougars to turn the ball over downs.

Starting their next drive at their own 44, the Wildcats steadily moved down the field, converting a fourth down on their way to a eight-play, 46-yard drive that culminated with a 24-yard, pass-and-catch from Dalrymple to Kolby Nelson to tie the score at 14-all with 5:21 left in the third quarter.

The Cougars punted on their next possession and the Wildcats went back to work, needing only five plays to go 61 yards. Daniel Torres ripped off a 21-yard gain on a counter, followed by a 20-yard jaunt from Valencia. JJ Lange then capped the drive by finding Juan Servin with a 2-yard touchdown pass to put the Wildcats up for good, 21-14.

Valencia then capped the game with a score around the right side from 9 yards out to go up 28-14 with just over five minutes to play.

“(This win) means we’re one step closer to where we want to get, which is a division championship,” Andrews said.