Mateo Bearcats blank EC in season opener

Senior quarterback Luke Bergstorm — who missed half of last season with a fracture in his non-throwing hand — executed the triple-read option to perfection, busting a 55-yard quarterback keeper for a touchdown. San Mateo’s blockers got containment on the inside and Bergstorm did the rest, beating the lone El Camino defender to the outside and sprinting down the sideline to stake his team to a 7-0 lead.

“I knew they had a fast safety, so I thought he was going to come over and maybe catch to me because I’m not that fast,” Bergstorm said. “But I hit the edge and I just sprinted my butt off, and he couldn’t catch up to me. I just kept running.”

Bergstorm finished with a sturdy night, gaining 171 total yards, including 106 rushing and two touchdowns.

Bearcats head coach Jeff Scheller said he didn’t know if Bergstorm would settle back in to running the read option after missing half of 2018. And while some fine-tuning still need be done, both the bootleg and passing elements had their moments in the season opener.

“We’re excited,” Scheller said. “The passing game is a huge play-action piece, and then the pitch game. It’s something he has to work on and he did today.”

The score remained at a 7-0 crossroads until late in the third quarter when the Bearcats benefitted from an El Camino targeting penalty. On fourth-and-7 from just past midfield, San Mateo opted to go for it. Bergstorm handed off to running back Dane Anderson on a trap play, but the junior was met five yards downfield with a crushing hit by El Camino safety Jovaughn Williams to stop his progress cold.

Williams, however, was flagged for targeting. He contacted the side of Anderson’s helmet, according to Anderson. The penalty cost El Camino dearly, going for 15 yards, a first down, and an ejection for Williams, which comes with a suspension for the next game as well.

“I think they (the referees) panicked because it was the hit,” Mayorga said. “He wasn’t defenseless. He was a running back running the ball. He seemed to lower his shoulder but I think it was just a hit and everything that came with it just kind of made them panic, and he threw [the flag].”

There was an intriguing element to the play in that Williams was in a position where he needed to stop forward progress to prevent the first down. Had he not hit Anderson hard, the running back would have surely been able to reach the first-down marker, he said.

“Yes,” Anderson said. “I would have gotten the first down, and maybe more.”

El Camino head coach Rustin Mayorga agreed with that assessment, and said he wasn’t certain if Williams could have stopped forward progress any other way.

“He’d probably have to do a better job of wrapping up instead of just going right through him,” Mayorga said. “But, I don’t know. … It’s such a bang-bang play but obviously, if that’s going to keep happening, we have to coach it up and clean it up even better.”

Scheller had a better vantage point with the play occurring near the San Mateo sideline.

“At first glance, it was high,” Scheller said. “He’s a tall kid already and Dane is tall, but it was high. I can’t sit here and tell you I definitely saw a forearm. But if they’re trying to protect the kids, I think it was the right call. You never want to see a kid ejected from a game. But those rules are put in place to protect the kid. And if it happened to us, I’d be upset too. But if he was guilty then that’s the right call.”

With the drive sustained — one that started at the Bearcats’ 1-yard line after EC pinned them on a punt — San Mateo quickly advanced 15 yards to the EC 8-yard line on an Aidan Harper run. The Bearcats scored four plays later, on fourth-and-goal from the 1, on a QB option by Bergstorm — capping an epic 14-play, 99-yard drive.

El Camino had its chances to score, including on its first possession of the season. San Mateo’s fast start turned out to be the only score of the first half. But the Colts did get into the end zone only to have the touchdown nullified by a holding call.

The Colts took the ball at their own 38 and made a charge with a 17-play drive, including three straight third-down conversions to start it off. EC took the ball into the red zone on a fourth-down conversion with a 13-yard completion by Noel Valdez with some good ups by receiver Thomas Haysbert at the 19. EC took the ball to the 2-yard line, but a TD was nullified on a holding penalty, which killed the drive, with the Colts turning it over on downs two plays later.

Haysbert had a solid night with six catches for 88 yards. The senior estimated he totaled six or seven catches all of last year. Valdez was 12-of-19 passing for 119 yards.

“We all have our heads up,” Haysbert said. “It’s just Week 1. We’re working hard. Our depth chart isn’t that much this year, we don’t have that many players. We’re all just going to keep working hard.”

San Mateo added a fourth-quarter touchdown on a 12-yard run by Harper, who totaled seven carries for 57 yards.