A remarkable drive in the final four minutes of the game carried the Menlo-Atherton football team to a dramatic 28-25 victory over visiting Woodside on Saturday, clinching a second straight PAL Bay Division title while wrapping up a second consecutive undefeated league season.
The thrilling victory, topped by a one-yard plunge by junior quarterback Turner Baty with 22.2 seconds to play, capped a 5-0 divisison season for the Bears (8-2 overall). The triumph also sends M-A into the Central Coast Section Large School Division playoffs with the No. 1 seed.
Menlo-Atherton will open the section playoffs on Saturday (1 p.m.) by hosting No. 8 Monta Vista (8-2) out of the SCVAL El Camino Division. The first-round matchup is a just reward for the Bears and their first-year head coach Phillip Brown.
“These kids are great,” said an excited Brown, who hugged nearly everyone on the team following the game. “Having this team accomplish what it did, it’s one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had.”
Those feelings might not have been so euphoric had the Bears not pulled things together after Woodside had taken the lead at 25-21 on a 25-yard run by Jason Simpson with just 4:03 to play.
Baty, however, calmly guided the Bears’ comeback, throwing a 13-yard pass to Rod Nash for a first down at the Bears’ 47. Baty then hooked up with Sam Knapp on perhaps the biggest play of the game, a 46-yard completition to the Woodside 7.
The Wildcats helped out on the next play, incurring a penalty to put the ball on the 4. M-A senior Vaughn Smith darted to the one-yard line and Baty plunged over from there one play later.
A kickoff and one wild play by Woodside and it was over. The Menlo-Atherton players celebrated wildly on the field and Brown got the ritual dunking of ice water.
“I will glady sacrifice a suit for the sake of these kids,” Brown said. “It’s the greatest feeling to watch them succeed. I love these kids. I only come out for the kids.”
Woodside (3-2, 7-3) needed a victory to force a tie with Menlo-Atherton and earn the league’s No. 1 seed via a tiebreaker. It appeared the Wildcats were headed in that direction until the Bears put together their most dramatic and important series of the season.
After Baty’s touchdown run and the ensuing kickoff, Woodside had one shot to score. However, Simpson was only able to advance 13 yards after taking a lateral from Sekope Kaufusi, ending the game.
At the start of the game, Woodside dominated play offensively and defensively, and led 10-0 by the end of the first quarter. Tito Gildo-Hernandez hit a 32-yard field goal and Simpson got in from four-yards out, while M-A gained only eight total yards on its first three drives.
However, M-A finally got into the game in the second quarter, scoring twice on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Baty to Rod Nash and an eight-yard run by Vaughn Smith. Heading into halftime, the Bears held a 14-10 lead. M-A built on that lead with its first possession of the second half when Smith got in for his second touchdown of the game on a 10-yard run.
