Photos

■ Click here for other prep and college scores.

By Rick Eymer
Palo Alto Online Sports

Menlo School senior running back Heru Peacock has played the violin longer than he's played football and he's pretty good at football. He started winning awards for his violin virtuosity in middle school. These days he's just as happy scoring touchdowns.

Peacock needed eight carries to rush for 82 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the Knights' 66-14 thrashing of visiting Santa Cruz in the season opener for both teams on Friday night.

"We showed we had good depth," Peacock said. "The juniors stepped up and kept the momentum going."

Peacock hopes to get a chance to participate in college, both football and the violin. He also plays the electric guitar and is a member of the Menlo jazz band.

Peacock's football lineage is pretty impressive too. His father, Walter Peacock, is the career rushing leader (3,204 yards) at the University of Louisville.

Peacock took his hand offs from two different quarterbacks in the game, junior starter Jack Heneghan and senior Matt Bradley. The two signal callers combined to throw for 140 yards on 11 of 18 passing. Heneghan added 67 rushing yards. He passed for a touchdown and ran for two more.

"It's nice to have depth at quarterback," Heneghan said. "It makes us a better team. We both have the 'team first' attitude and when he's in the game I'm rooting for him to score and when I'm in the game he's rooting for me."

They'll likely both get a chance to play again next week when the Knights travel to Kezar Stadium to take on Mission High at 2 p.m. Saturday. After all, Bradley also recorded a sack against the Cardinals.

Last year Menlo beat Santa Cruz on the final play of the game. This year, against a junior-dominated team, the Knights had a 9-0 lead before they ran a play from scrimmage.

Max Parker raced 91 yards with the opening kickoff for a 7-0 edge and a bad snap into the end zone gave Menlo another two points. The Knights turned the game into a romp after that, building a 30-0 advantage and 66-7 lead.

"The coaches did a great job with special teams," Peacock said. "That's what really turned the momentum for us."

Travis Chambers returned a free kick 62 yards for a score and Peter Bouret's 43-yard free kick return set up Menlo's second touchdown. Connor Stastny also scored, on a 48-yard pass, for Menlo. Wiley Osborne added an 11-yard scoring run.

— Gunntitans.com contributed

Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.