|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
In a game that had 13 touchdowns and more than 1,000 yards of offense, the simple difference Saturday night in Menlo School’s 48-39 nonleague victory over Justin-Siena of Napa at Woodside was Menlo played error-free football and made one significant defensive stop.
Menlo improved to 2-1 by running 68 plays and not committing a fumble or throwing an interception despite the pressure on ball-handling in the pass-pitch offense it runs. The Knights scored on seven of its first 11 possessions and totaled 494 yards of offense.
Meanwhile, Justin-Siena (0-3) lost four fumbles and tossed a costly second-quarter interception to Knight defensive back Phil Anderson. The interception came on a first-and-goal attempt that would have tied the game at 14. Instead, Menlo scored to make the score 21-7. That margin held throughout the high-scoring affair.
Menlo senior quarterback Danny Diekroeger threw for 336 yards and a pair of touchdowns and ran for two more. Receiver/returner Clay Robbins had 259 yards of offense and junior running back Beau Nichols scored four touchdowns.
Diekroeger threw touchdowns to Nichols for 67 yards, which featured elusive cross-field running and a key downfield block by Robbins, and another 26-yard pass to Tim Benton.
Robbins caught five passes for 155 yards, had two rushes for 20 yards and returned three kicks for 83 yards.
Nichols scored his touchdowns on runs of 1, 2 and 17 yards plus the long pass.
Justin-Siena’s offense edged Menlo’s statistically, gaining 542 yards, but the Knights had three sacks by Eric Nelson to help slow the Braves. In a game of offense, it was a few defensive plays that ultimately spelled the difference for Menlo.
Valley Christian 30, Menlo-Atherton 17
The Bears (0-3) finally got their offense rolling after scoring just 13 points in their first two losses. The defense, however, still needs some work following Saturday’s nonleague setback in Atherton.
Menlo-Atherton actually trailed 30-3 before scoring twice in the final quarter. Cameron Moody caught a 30-yard TD pass from Michael Culhane to get the Bears on the TD scoreboard with 1:47 left to play. M-A got the ball back shortely thereafter and Culhane hit Michael Brown on a 25-yard scoring play with 53 seconds left.
Sam Falkenhagen kicked a 45-yard field goal in the second quarter for the Bears. Alof Sakalia led the M-A running game with 40 yards on two carries while Culhane was seven of 16 for 89 yards. Ryan Chilcoat and Luke Pinkston both were in on nine tackles, six assisted.
The 30 points allowed were the fewest by M-A this season following losses to Wilcox (45-0) and Los Gatos (56-7). The Bears will be home again next Saturday against Leigh.
Priory 42, Cornerstone Christian 16
The Panthers, in their first season of eight-man football, picked up their first-ever triumph with an impressive road outing on Saturday.
Freshman running back Matt Schwab scored two touchdowns as did quarterback Ray Ross. Senior running back Ricky Dolezalek added one score with Connor Mather giving Priory a 6-0 lead.
The Panthers trailed 16-6 midway through the second quarter but stepped up defensively to shut their hosts down the rest of the game. Priory held a 20-16 halftime lead and steadily pulled away after that.