Woodside High takes CCS football crown after (December 08, 2004) undefeated season

** Varsity team stages remarkable comeback.

As turnarounds go, the 2004-05 Woodside High Wildcats have surely raised the bar with a stunning 13-0 season, capped by a 36-20 victory over Campbell's Westmont High on Friday in the title game for the Central Coast Section's Medium School Division.

In the game, Woodside quarterback Julian Edelman rushed for 140 yards and two touchdown runs: one for 63 yards and another for four yards after a series of reverses. Edelman, a senior this year, completed six of 12 passes for 86 yards, including a 15-yard touchdown pass to Dominic Duncan-Cruz.

Senior running back Tyreece Jacks carried the ball 15 times for 125 yards -- including a 50-yard score -- bringing his season total to 1,750 yards on 164 carries, an average of 10.7 yards per carry. Jacks scored 30 touchdowns this year, including nine in the post season.

Woodside place kicker Gil Hernandez converted three field goals: one for 35 yards and two for 37 yards each.
About face

This year's season of victories was a remarkable turn of events for Woodside after three consecutive losing seasons.

Last year, after five straight losses, the team had to forfeit the last two games as punishment for the players who had engaged in a profanity-laden locker-room chant expressing their unhappiness with then-Coach Packy Moss.

Moss resigned in January and Principal Linda Common gave the reins to Steve Nicolopulos -- Woodside's longtime athletic director and head football coach from 1992 to 1996, a period that included four consecutive winning seasons and two Peninsula Athletic League championships for Woodside.

Common had fired Nicolopulos in 1996 for shouting obscenities from the sidelines. "I didn't fire him over his ability to be a coach," Common said after reappointing him. Indeed.

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