Menlo-Atherton High School played its first night game under its new permanent lights on Friday and rolled to a 43-7 nonleague victory over El Camino.
Quarterback Willy Fonua threw for three touchdowns and Cameron Moody returned a kickoff 90 yards to highlight the offensive explosion for the Bears. Moody added a 24-yard TD run and one from a yard out that gave M-A its final margin of victory.
Taylor Mashack added a 60-yard TD run in the first quarter to help spark the Bears to 22 points in the opening period. He finished with 71 rushing yards on just three carries to lead the Bears to 211 yards on the ground. Blake Olsen caught a 40-yard scoring pass from Fonua, who also tossed a three-yard TD pass to Richard Cornew.
Menlo-Atherton next will host Los Gatos on Sept. 10 at 2 p.m.
Menlo School
In Santa Cruz, Menlo School rode the wave of a fourth-quarter rally for a thrilling 19-18 last-second win over host Santa Cruz on Friday night.
"Our defense did a great job; that was the key to keeping us in the game all night," Menlo coach Mark Newton said.
After Santa Cruz grabbed a 12-0 lead at halftime and improved it to 18-12 in the fourth quarter, Menlo began engineering its comeback.
With 42 seconds left, Menlo senior Chris Reed ran the kickoff to the Knights' 35. Junior Matt Bradley completed a pair of long passes to junior Connor Stastny and senior Tommy Ford to get down to the Santa Cruz 30.
Sophomore quarterback Jack Heneghan came in and connected down the middle with Reed, who got the Knights to the 2-yard line. With 5.7 seconds left, senior Dylan Mayer scored behind senior Spencer Buja and junior Wyatt Rouser. Junior Timmy Costa added the PAT, and the Knights walked away with the win.
"We played a lot of guys in different spots," Newton said. "We'll be able to take away a lot of teaching points – to improve, and there's a lot they did well."
It was Mayer, who also tied the game 12-12 with a 60-yard run midway through the fourth quarter. Santa Cruz's Jonah Hodges picked up all three touchdowns.
Newton credited defensive coordinator Jason Ward and coaches Taylor Skaufel and Mark Mueller for directing the Knights' defense.
Menlo plays host to Mission San Francisco in its home opener, a nonleague game on Sept. 9 at 3:15 p.m.
-- Embarcadero Media. Menlo School Athletics contributed.
